Carrier performance at one airport
WN→MCO
Southwest Airlines at Orlando International
- Departures
- 50,575
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #7 of 10
Southwest Airlines at Orlando sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 5 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 50,575 flights, of which United Airlines flew 15,061 at 81.1% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs 2 points behind the 74.3% 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
72.6%
49,921 completed departures
Avg delay
56 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.06%
At MCO, this carrier only
Rank here
#7
Of 10 carriers clearing the floor at MCO
These figures cover 51,000 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Against the competition
Every carrier at MCO, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 81.1% of the time; Allegiant Air manages 65.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 395 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 15,061 | 81.1% | 88 min | 0.98% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 21,416 | 78.0% | 83 min | 1.85% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 17,732 | 77.0% | 76 min | 1.47% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 2,462 | 75.9% | 60 min | 0.73% | B+ |
| Republic Airways | 590 | 75.3% | 64 min | 0.34% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 19,496 | 73.3% | 89 min | 2.02% | C |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 50,575 | 72.6% | 56 min | 1.06% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 18,641 | 71.6% | 76 min | 2.04% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 14,640 | 69.4% | 68 min | 3.55% | C− |
| Allegiant Air | 395 | 65.0% | 89 min | 1.52% | C |
Spirit Airlines cancels 3.5% 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 Southwest Airlines flies from MCO
Southwest Airlines operates 25 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 BWI · Baltimore | 3,584 | 76.8% | 59 min | 1.84% | B |
| MCO to DAL · Dallas | 2,644 | 72.8% | 59 min | 1.66% | C |
| MCO to BNA · Nashville | 2,590 | 74.8% | 53 min | 1.24% | C |
| MCO to MDW · Chicago | 2,548 | 70.0% | 56 min | 2.08% | C |
| MCO to STL · St. Louis | 2,081 | 77.6% | 62 min | 0.72% | B+ |
| MCO to SJU · San Juan | 2,067 | 69.8% | 51 min | 0.63% | C+ |
| MCO to HOU · Houston | 2,023 | 77.0% | 55 min | 0.84% | B+ |
| MCO to DEN · Denver | 1,973 | 71.9% | 56 min | 0.41% | C+ |
| MCO to AUS · Austin | 1,885 | 75.4% | 60 min | 0.74% | B+ |
| MCO to IND · Indianapolis | 1,617 | 72.6% | 58 min | 1.36% | C |
| MCO to MSY · New Orleans | 1,593 | 73.8% | 58 min | 0.38% | C+ |
| MCO to PIT · Pittsburgh | 1,590 | 75.9% | 60 min | 0.75% | B+ |
| MCO to CMH · Columbus | 1,527 | 73.4% | 58 min | 1.18% | C |
| MCO to MCI · Kansas City | 1,256 | 71.1% | 55 min | 1.04% | C |
| MCO to MKE · Milwaukee | 1,129 | 68.9% | 51 min | 0.89% | C+ |
| MCO to DCA · Washington | 1,097 | 67.7% | 61 min | 1.19% | C |
| MCO to ATL · Atlanta | 1,093 | 71.3% | 59 min | 1.37% | C |
| MCO to BUF · Buffalo | 950 | 66.2% | 51 min | 0.95% | C+ |
| MCO to LAS · Las Vegas | 930 | 75.9% | 52 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| MCO to PVD · Providence | 901 | 75.3% | 58 min | 1.22% | B |
| MCO to PHX · Phoenix | 852 | 78.2% | 51 min | 0.23% | B+ |
| MCO to BHM · Birmingham | 850 | 69.2% | 59 min | 0.71% | C+ |
| MCO to RDU · Raleigh | 844 | 71.7% | 60 min | 1.90% | C |
| MCO to ORD · Chicago | 800 | 66.8% | 60 min | 1.38% | C |
| MCO to SAT · San Antonio | 762 | 73.5% | 57 min | 0.26% | C+ |
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 41 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am5,998 flights94.5%
- 8am–11am12,367 flights85.2%
- 11am–2pm6,114 flights75.5%
- 2pm–5pm8,145 flights67.5%
- 5pm–8pm9,386 flights61.6%
- 8pm–5am8,565 flights53.6%
Scale runs 45% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 53.6% on time, against 94.5% 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 12,367 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
August is the worst month at 67.2% on time, 17 points below September, the best at 84.3%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 4,688 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 30%Carrier
- 18%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
- 1%Security
46% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 766,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 9 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 766,028 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.06% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.23%.
8.0% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route are the about an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
50,575 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: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 84.3% on time and August 67.2%, a swing of 17 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 49,921 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at MCO
How often is Southwest Airlines at MCO delayed?
Roughly one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 27.4% of the 50,575 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Southwest Airlines at MCO?
United Airlines leads at 81.1% on time across 15,061 flights. Allegiant Air is at the other end on 65.0%, a gap of 16 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 Southwest Airlines at MCO?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 94.5% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 53.6%, 41 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 August delays on Southwest Airlines at MCO?
August is the weakest month at 67.2% on time, compared with 84.3% in September. Across the year that is 17 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
- Southwest Airlines network-wide record
- Orlando International (MCO) all carriers
- MCO to BWI route record76.8%
- MCO to DAL route record72.8%
- MCO to BNA route record74.8%
- MCO to MDW route record70.0%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.