Carrier performance at one airport
AA→MCO
American Airlines at Orlando International
- Departures
- 19,654
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 10
- Rank here
- #6 of 10
American Airlines at Orlando sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 19,654 flights, of which United Airlines flew 15,054 at 81.5% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs half a point behind the 74.6% weighted average across all carriers at MCO. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
74.4%
19,198 completed departures
Avg delay
90 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.97%
At MCO, this carrier only
Rank here
#6
Of 10 carriers clearing the floor at MCO
These figures cover 20,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.8% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Against the competition
Every carrier at MCO, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 81.5% of the time; Allegiant Air manages 67.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 407 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 15,054 | 81.5% | 83 min | 1.11% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 21,571 | 77.9% | 83 min | 1.94% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 2,396 | 77.7% | 58 min | 0.63% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 19,073 | 76.3% | 79 min | 1.68% | B |
| Republic Airways | 404 | 75.8% | 60 min | 0.50% | B+ |
| American Airlines (this page) | 19,654 | 74.4% | 90 min | 1.97% | C |
| Southwest Airlines | 51,275 | 72.6% | 57 min | 1.12% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 18,799 | 71.3% | 77 min | 2.72% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 11,307 | 70.1% | 67 min | 4.34% | C− |
| Allegiant Air | 407 | 67.8% | 93 min | 1.72% | C |
Spirit Airlines cancels 4.3% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Where American Airlines flies from MCO
American Airlines operates 10 routes out of MCO with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MCO to CLT · Charlotte | 3,686 | 79.3% | 89 min | 1.68% | B |
| MCO to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 3,673 | 74.2% | 88 min | 2.61% | C |
| MCO to MIA · Miami | 2,975 | 75.9% | 83 min | 1.18% | B |
| MCO to PHL · Philadelphia | 2,626 | 75.3% | 98 min | 2.40% | B |
| MCO to ORD · Chicago | 2,163 | 71.2% | 82 min | 2.08% | C |
| MCO to DCA · Washington | 1,815 | 72.0% | 88 min | 2.31% | C |
| MCO to LGA · New York | 901 | 58.4% | 101 min | 3.22% | D− |
| MCO to PHX · Phoenix | 796 | 78.0% | 103 min | 0.63% | B+ |
| MCO to LAX · Los Angeles | 735 | 76.1% | 100 min | 0.27% | B+ |
| MCO to BOS · Bostonthin sample | 284 | 66.8% | 80 min | 3.17% | C− |
Flight by flight
American Airlines flight numbers from MCO
6 American Airlines flight numbers leaving MCO flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 36 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am4,093 flights90.9%
- 8am–11am3,652 flights87.2%
- 11am–2pm3,512 flights77.3%
- 2pm–5pm3,643 flights62.7%
- 5pm–8pm3,742 flights55.4%
- 8pm–5am1,012 flights62.3%
Scale runs 45% to 95%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 55.4% on time, against 90.9% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 4,093 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 68.5% on time, 12 points below September, the best at 80.3%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. May was the busiest month here, with 1,758 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 52%Late-arriving aircraft
- 25%Carrier
- 16%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
52% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 440,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 to one. The split is drawn from 439,824 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.97% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.35%.
10.8% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
19,654 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.
Put together: avoid the 5pm–8pm departure. It runs 55.4% on time against 90.9% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 36 points is the largest single thing you control here. United Airlines is the strongest operator if the fares are close. 19,198 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
American Airlines at MCO
How often is American Airlines at MCO delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 25.6% of the 19,654 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on American Airlines at MCO?
United Airlines leads at 81.5% on time across 15,054 flights. Allegiant Air is at the other end on 67.8%, a gap of 14 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on American Airlines at MCO?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 55.4%, 36 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are July delays on American Airlines at MCO?
July is the weakest month at 68.5% on time, compared with 80.3% in September. Across the year that is 12 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.