OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

New Orleans to San Francisco

1,911 miData through Dec 2025Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on MSY–SFO arrive on time 79% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate79%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay40 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled1.2%of scheduled flights

based on 521 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

  • United Airlines
    On-time79%
    Medianon time
    p9040 min
    Cancel1.2%
    Flights521

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline26%
  • Weather7%
  • Air traffic (NAS)41%
  • Late aircraft26%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Air traffic (NAS).

Over time

On-time trend

By season

On-time rate by month

When to fly

Best time to fly MSY → SFO

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

Best time of day

On-time rates are fairly even by time of day on this route — ranging from 69% to 85% on time.

  • Mornings85% on time · p90 20 min · 601 flights
  • Afternoons76% on time · p90 45 min · 51 flights · limited
  • Evenings69% on time · p90 80 min · 844 flights

Best day of week

On-time rates are fairly even by day on this route — ranging from 70% to 80% on time.

  • Saturdays80% on time · p90 25 min · 208 flights
  • Tuesdays79% on time · p90 35 min · 199 flights · limited
  • Fridays77% on time · p90 70 min · 226 flights
  • Wednesdays76% on time · p90 45 min · 204 flights
  • Mondays74% on time · p90 75 min · 228 flights
  • Thursdays72% on time · p90 70 min · 225 flights
  • Sundays70% on time · p90 70 min · 225 flights
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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.