Orlando, FL · departure reliability
MCO
Orlando International
- Departures
- 161,737
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Carriers
- 10
- US rank
- #10 by volume
Orlando
Orlando International 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 77.4%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 161,737 flights, of which United Airlines flew 15,037 at 80.7% on time.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the ten carriers covered here at 80.7% on time across 15,037 flights.
Key figures
On time
74.1%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
72 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.64%
National rate is 1.80%
Best carrier
United
80.7% on time here
These figures cover 162,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.8% 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.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of MCO
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 80.7% of the time; Allegiant Air manages 63.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 394 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 50,175 | 72.9% | 56 min | 1.02% | C |
| Delta Air Lines | 21,391 | 77.0% | 84 min | 1.87% | B |
| American Airlines | 19,415 | 73.1% | 89 min | 2.10% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 18,479 | 71.2% | 75 min | 1.98% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 17,376 | 76.6% | 76 min | 1.54% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 16,236 | 69.7% | 68 min | 3.26% | C− |
| United Airlines | 15,037 | 80.7% | 89 min | 1.00% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 2,492 | 75.1% | 60 min | 0.72% | B+ |
| Republic Airways | 680 | 75.9% | 69 min | 0.44% | B+ |
| Allegiant Air | 394 | 63.8% | 89 min | 1.02% | D |
Spirit Airlines cancels 3.3% 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
Busiest routes out of MCO
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from MCO, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 74.1%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MCO to ATL · Atlanta | 8,226 | 74.6% | 81 min | 1.43% | C |
| MCO to EWR · Newark | 6,653 | 73.4% | 93 min | 2.93% | C |
| MCO to ORD · Chicago | 6,422 | 70.5% | 79 min | 1.67% | C |
| MCO to SJU · San Juan | 6,037 | 72.8% | 64 min | 0.88% | C+ |
| MCO to PHL · Philadelphia | 5,342 | 72.1% | 82 min | 2.40% | C |
| MCO to LGA · New York | 5,302 | 68.3% | 79 min | 3.79% | C− |
| MCO to JFK · New York | 4,943 | 73.2% | 82 min | 2.93% | C |
| MCO to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 4,932 | 74.0% | 82 min | 2.82% | C |
| MCO to CLT · Charlotte | 4,760 | 77.9% | 84 min | 1.97% | B |
| MCO to BWI · Baltimore | 4,753 | 75.4% | 61 min | 2.08% | B |
| MCO to BOS · Boston | 4,646 | 70.3% | 73 min | 2.82% | C |
| MCO to DCA · Washington | 4,585 | 67.5% | 79 min | 2.01% | C |
| MCO to DEN · Denver | 4,575 | 78.7% | 67 min | 0.61% | B+ |
| MCO to MIA · Miami | 3,840 | 74.6% | 75 min | 1.07% | C |
| MCO to DTW · Detroit | 3,767 | 72.8% | 72 min | 1.22% | C |
| MCO to IAH · Houston | 3,710 | 81.2% | 84 min | 1.05% | B |
| MCO to BNA · Nashville | 3,480 | 74.7% | 58 min | 1.90% | C |
| MCO to LAX · Los Angeles | 3,453 | 79.7% | 79 min | 0.58% | B+ |
| MCO to MDW · Chicago | 2,796 | 71.2% | 58 min | 1.86% | C |
| MCO to AUS · Austin | 2,748 | 76.3% | 71 min | 1.06% | B |
| MCO to RDU · Raleigh | 2,703 | 76.1% | 79 min | 1.85% | B |
| MCO to DAL · Dallas | 2,656 | 73.5% | 59 min | 1.62% | C |
| MCO to STL · St. Louis | 2,483 | 76.6% | 69 min | 0.81% | B+ |
| MCO to IND · Indianapolis | 2,413 | 74.0% | 66 min | 1.37% | C |
| MCO to MSY · New Orleans | 2,300 | 74.5% | 61 min | 0.91% | C+ |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave MCO
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 34 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am25,163 flights92.1%
- 8am–11am32,556 flights85.2%
- 11am–2pm24,806 flights76.7%
- 2pm–5pm28,174 flights67.8%
- 5pm–8pm29,735 flights61.4%
- 8pm–5am21,303 flights58.2%
Scale runs 50% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 58.2% on time, against 92.1% 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.
Across the year
When MCO runs late
MCO's year swings by 18 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
July is the worst month at 67.0% on time, 18 points below September, the best at 84.6%. 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.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 80.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 67.0%. 13 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why MCO gets delayed
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 2.95 million reported delay minutes.
- 41%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%Carrier
- 24%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
41% 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 2.95 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 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 practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 92.1% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.64% against a national 1.80%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.26%.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 9.8% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.2% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
161,737 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.
What to do with this
Flying out of MCO
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 84.6% on time and July 67.0%, a swing of 18 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else.
Common questions
MCO delay questions
How often is Orlando (MCO) delayed?
About 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 25.9% of the 161,737 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Orlando (MCO)?
United Airlines leads at 80.7% on time across 15,037 flights. Allegiant Air is at the other end on 63.8%, a gap of 17 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 Orlando (MCO)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.1% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 58.2%, 34 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 Orlando (MCO)?
July is the weakest month at 67.0% on time, compared with 84.6% in September. Across the year that is 18 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
- MCO to ATL — Atlanta74.6%
- MCO to EWR — Newark73.4%
- MCO to ORD — Chicago70.5%
- MCO to SJU — San Juan72.8%
- MCO to PHL — Philadelphia72.1%
- MCO to LGA — New York68.3%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record72.9%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record77.0%
- American Airlines on-time record73.1%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record71.2%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.