Route profile
MSY→SLC
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from New Orleans to Salt Lake City, 1,428 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – August 2026
Better than 96% of comparable major US routes (4,629 compared)
Calculated from 1,344 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
MSY → SLC arrives on time 88.8% of the time; the return trip, SLC → MSY, arrives on time 87.6% of the time.
MSY → SLC spends 20.1 minutes on the ground on a 1,428-mile trip: 12.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MSY and 7.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at SLC.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – August 2026
What stands out
Unlike most, it barely matters what time you fly this route, a steadier spread than 98% of 4,053 comparable routes.
91.3% on time for 12–3 PM departures, against 86.3% for 6–9 PM, a narrow gap either way.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – August 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 4,053 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where MSY to SLC differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – August 2026.
MSY to SLC is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 2 PM: 94.4% arrive on time, 21.5 points ahead of the 72.9% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 20.1 points.
MSY to SLC holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 89.7% on time to their 75.3%, a 14.4 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 15.1 points.
July is kinder to MSY to SLC than to routes of similar length: 85.4% on time against 69.8%, 15.6 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 15.7 points.
Delta Air Lines does better on MSY to SLC than on its routes of similar length: 88.8% on time here, 82.5% there, 6.3 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 7.5 points.
MSY to SLC against comparable routes
July 2023 – August 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 94.4% | routes of similar length | 72.9% | +21.5 pts | 124 here, 90,021 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 89.7% | routes of similar length | 75.3% | +14.4 pts | 203 here, 240,376 there |
| Month: July | 85.4% | routes of similar length | 69.8% | +15.6 pts | 123 here, 180,731 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 88.8% | routes of similar length | 82.5% | +6.3 pts | 1,335 here, 329,889 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 1,428 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 – August 2026
18 min late
against a median of 11 min early
Percentiles over 1,344 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SLC after arriving from MSY.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 24% | High risk |
| 45 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 7.0% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 3.8% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.1% | 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 0.45% of the time and diverts 0.22% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,335 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 18 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,344 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MSY → SLC flights departing 12–3 PM arrived on time 91.3% of the time, against 86.3% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 5.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 90.4% on time from 441 flights
- 2 PM: 94.4% on time from 124 flights
- 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 89.3% on time from 121 flights
- 5 PM to 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 88.0% on time from 506 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why MSY → SLC runs late
July 2023 – August 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for MSY → SLC. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
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 | 1,344 | 88.8% | 0.45% | -11 min | 3.9% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL736 Delta Air Lines | 2:00 PM | 604 | 91.5% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 4.8 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – August 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-09 to 2026-08), on-time arrivals averaged 90.7% against 90.2% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,344 MSY → SLC flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – August 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