OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

New Orleans to Washington

969 miData through Dec 2025Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on MSY–DCA arrive on time 66% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate66%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay70 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled3.9%of scheduled flights

based on 1,692 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

  • Republic Airwaysbest
    On-time93%
    Medianon time
    p905 min
    Cancel0.0%
    Flights60
  • American Airlines
    On-time69%
    Medianon time
    p9075 min
    Cancel1.4%
    Flights415
  • Southwest Airlines
    On-time68%
    Medianon time
    p9055 min
    Cancel1.4%
    Flights707
  • PSA Airlines
    On-time58%
    Medianon time
    p9095 min
    Cancel9.8%
    Flights510

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline23%
  • Weather8%
  • Air traffic (NAS)19%
  • Late aircraft50%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Late aircraft.

Over time

On-time trend

By season

On-time rate by month

When to fly

Best time to fly MSY → DCA

All airlines · rolling 36 months (2023-01 .. 2025-12).

Best time of day

Mornings are the most reliable time of day to fly this route — 90% on time.

  • Mornings90% on time · p90 10 min · 459 flights
  • Middays81% on time · p90 30 min · 2,096 flights
  • Evenings68% on time · p90 60 min · 1,305 flights
  • Afternoons66% on time · p90 70 min · 1,783 flights

Best day of week

Saturdays are the most reliable day to fly this route — 82% on time.

  • Saturdays82% on time · p90 40 min · 638 flights
  • Tuesdays75% on time · p90 40 min · 825 flights
  • Thursdays74% on time · p90 55 min · 806 flights
  • Mondays73% on time · p90 50 min · 828 flights
  • Wednesdays73% on time · p90 55 min · 823 flights
  • Sundays72% on time · p90 45 min · 905 flights
  • Fridays71% on time · p90 60 min · 818 flights
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Related pages

Methodology

A flight is on time when it arrives within 15 minutes of schedule — the US DOT / BTS standard. Median and p90(the “1-in-10 bad day”) are read from the full arrival-delay distribution, never averaged across periods.

Figures cover a carrier’s own BTS-coded flights. Cells below ~200 flights are flagged as limited data. All numbers are pre-computed from public BTS On-Time Performance data.