Route profile
MSY→LAX
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from New Orleans to Los Angeles, 1,670 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 69% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,979 flights. How this is calculated
MSY → LAX arrives on time 81.3% of the time; the return trip, LAX → MSY, arrives on time 82.5% of the time.
MSY → LAX spends 23.2 minutes on the ground on a 1,670-mile trip: 12.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MSY and 10.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at LAX.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where MSY to LAX differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
MSY to LAX is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 8 PM: 82.3% arrive on time, 17.3 points ahead of the 65.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 14.9 points.
MSY to LAX holds up on Thursdays better than routes of similar length do: 82.6% on time to their 76.5%, a 6.1 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 5.8 points.
August is kinder to MSY to LAX than to routes of similar length: 88.1% on time against 75.7%, 12.4 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 11.6 points.
Spirit Airlines does better on MSY to LAX than on its routes of similar length: 82.3% on time here, 75.6% there, 6.7 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 7.1 points.
Southwest Airlines’ flights on MSY to LAX arrive on time 70.7% of the time, 4.8 points below the 75.5% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 6.7 points.
MSY to LAX against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 8 PM departures | 82.3% | routes of similar length | 65.0% | +17.3 pts | 305 here, 49,210 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 82.6% | routes of similar length | 76.5% | +6.1 pts | 771 here, 219,474 there |
| Month: August | 88.1% | routes of similar length | 75.7% | +12.4 pts | 377 here, 128,045 there |
| Airline: Spirit Airlines | 82.3% | routes of similar length | 75.6% | +6.7 pts | 927 here, 42,038 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 70.7% | routes of similar length | 75.5% | −4.8 pts | 1,107 here, 323,666 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 1,670 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
34 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 4,979 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at LAX after arriving from MSY.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 35% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.4% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.2% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 0.88% of the time and diverts 0.20% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,925 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 34 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,979 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MSY → LAX flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 92.7% of the time, against 73.9% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 18.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 93.1% on time from 809 flights
- 7 AM: 93.7% on time from 369 flights
- 8 AM: 87.6% on time from 146 flights
- 9 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 78.9% on time from 190 flights
- 2 PM: 72.4% on time from 558 flights
- 3 PM: 77.1% on time from 821 flights
- 4 PM: 79.0% on time from 381 flights
- 5 PM: 78.9% on time from 363 flights
- 6 PM: 74.2% on time from 430 flights
- 7 PM: 73.0% on time from 201 flights
- 8 PM: 82.3% on time from 312 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why MSY → LAX runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for MSY → LAX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 2,903 | 85.1% | 0.96% | -11 min | 5.4% |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,114 | 70.7% | 0.36% | 2 min | 6.0% |
| Spirit Airlines | 941 | 82.3% | 1.28% | -7 min | 5.7% |
Delta Air Lines flew 58.6% of the 4,958 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 14.4 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL2085 Delta Air Lines | 6:15 AM | 784 | 93.0% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 8.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 80.6%
- Feb: 79.4%
- Mar: 82.0%
- Apr: 82.1%
- May: 74.3%
- Jun: 74.5%
- Jul: 74.7%
- Aug: 88.1%
- Sep: 84.7%
- Oct: 87.1%
- Nov: 85.6%
- Dec: 83.1%
May is historically the weakest month and August the strongest, a spread of 13.8 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 84.1% from 133 flights
- August 2023: 88.5% from 131 flights
- September 2023: 88.0% from 133 flights
- October 2023: 88.3% from 137 flights
- November 2023: 82.7% from 127 flights
- December 2023: 87.0% from 138 flights
- January 2024: 82.0% from 128 flights
- February 2024: 80.5% from 124 flights
- March 2024: 80.3% from 141 flights
- April 2024: 83.9% from 137 flights
- May 2024: 80.9% from 152 flights
- June 2024: 79.1% from 141 flights
- July 2024: 65.4% from 138 flights
- August 2024: 87.7% from 131 flights
- September 2024: 80.0% from 128 flights
- October 2024: 93.9% from 147 flights
- November 2024: 89.6% from 135 flights
- December 2024: 83.9% from 144 flights
- January 2025: 80.8% from 133 flights
- February 2025: 77.3% from 163 flights
- March 2025: 83.1% from 180 flights
- April 2025: 82.9% from 164 flights
- May 2025: 70.7% from 150 flights
- June 2025: 73.0% from 142 flights
- July 2025: 80.0% from 145 flights
- August 2025: too few flights to score (118)
- September 2025: 86.0% from 121 flights
- October 2025: 80.3% from 175 flights
- November 2025: 84.3% from 141 flights
- December 2025: 78.5% from 145 flights
- January 2026: too few flights to score (110)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (109)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (115)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (112)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (107)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (101)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (103)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 79.2% against 81.8% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,979 MSY → LAX flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed