OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

New Orleans to Washington

969 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on MSY–DCA arrive on time 68% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate68%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay70 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled3.1%of scheduled flights

based on 1,760 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

Too close to call — no single carrier is clearly more on-time here.

  • Republic Airways
    On-time85%
    Medianon time
    p9020 min
    Cancel0.7%
    Flights135
  • American Airlines
    On-time71%
    Medianon time
    p9075 min
    Cancel3.1%
    Flights417
  • Southwest Airlines
    On-time67%
    Medianon time
    p9065 min
    Cancel1.3%
    Flights707
  • PSA Airlines
    On-time63%
    Medianon time
    p9085 min
    Cancel6.2%
    Flights501

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline23%
  • Weather12%
  • Air traffic (NAS)18%
  • Late aircraft46%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Late aircraft.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline15%
  • Weather72%
  • Air traffic (NAS)13%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Weather. Shares are among 54 cancellations with a reported cause (BTS reports causes from June 2003).

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 (2023-06 .. 2026-05).

Best time of day

Mornings are the most reliable time of day to fly this route — 86% on time.

  • Mornings86% on time · p90 20 min · 560 flights
  • Middays80% on time · p90 30 min · 1,845 flights
  • Afternoons66% on time · p90 70 min · 1,938 flights
  • Evenings63% on time · p90 70 min · 1,285 flights

Best day of week

Saturdays are the most reliable day to fly this route — 80% on time.

  • Saturdays80% on time · p90 45 min · 636 flights
  • Tuesdays73% on time · p90 45 min · 819 flights
  • Thursdays72% on time · p90 60 min · 814 flights
  • Wednesdays71% on time · p90 60 min · 817 flights
  • Mondays70% on time · p90 55 min · 822 flights
  • Fridays69% on time · p90 65 min · 826 flights
  • Sundays68% on time · p90 50 min · 894 flights

Keep exploring

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.