Orlando, FL · departure reliability
MCO
Orlando International
- Departures
- 159,940
- Period
- September 2025 to August 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 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 159,940 flights, of which United Airlines flew 15,054 at 81.5% on time.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the ten carriers covered here at 81.5% on time across 15,054 flights.
Key figures
On time
74.6%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
72 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.81%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
81.5% on time here
These figures cover 160,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of MCO
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 51,275 | 72.6% | 57 min | 1.12% | C |
| Delta Air Lines | 21,571 | 77.9% | 83 min | 1.94% | B |
| American Airlines | 19,654 | 74.4% | 90 min | 1.97% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 19,073 | 76.3% | 79 min | 1.68% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 18,799 | 71.3% | 77 min | 2.72% | C |
| United Airlines | 15,054 | 81.5% | 83 min | 1.11% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 11,307 | 70.1% | 67 min | 4.34% | C− |
| Alaska Airlines | 2,396 | 77.7% | 58 min | 0.63% | B+ |
| Allegiant Air | 407 | 67.8% | 93 min | 1.72% | C |
| Republic Airways | 404 | 75.8% | 60 min | 0.50% | B+ |
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
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 74.6%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MCO to ATL · Atlanta | 8,259 | 74.9% | 80 min | 1.65% | C |
| MCO to EWR · Newark | 6,389 | 75.0% | 89 min | 3.29% | B− |
| MCO to ORD · Chicago | 6,224 | 71.1% | 79 min | 1.78% | C |
| MCO to SJU · San Juan | 6,141 | 73.8% | 63 min | 1.14% | C |
| MCO to PHL · Philadelphia | 5,333 | 71.3% | 90 min | 2.46% | C |
| MCO to LGA · New York | 5,149 | 67.5% | 82 min | 4.33% | C− |
| MCO to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 4,892 | 74.5% | 82 min | 2.56% | C |
| MCO to JFK · New York | 4,813 | 74.9% | 84 min | 3.74% | C− |
| MCO to CLT · Charlotte | 4,735 | 78.6% | 84 min | 1.92% | B |
| MCO to BWI · Baltimore | 4,716 | 76.1% | 63 min | 2.37% | B |
| MCO to BOS · Boston | 4,614 | 71.1% | 76 min | 3.23% | C− |
| MCO to DCA · Washington | 4,592 | 70.0% | 74 min | 2.37% | C |
| MCO to DEN · Denver | 4,523 | 80.3% | 64 min | 0.57% | B+ |
| MCO to MIA · Miami | 3,700 | 74.8% | 76 min | 1.16% | C |
| MCO to DTW · Detroit | 3,594 | 72.9% | 73 min | 1.14% | C |
| MCO to IAH · Houston | 3,569 | 83.5% | 76 min | 1.01% | B |
| MCO to BNA · Nashville | 3,550 | 73.2% | 59 min | 1.89% | C |
| MCO to LAX · Los Angeles | 3,517 | 81.7% | 72 min | 0.71% | B+ |
| MCO to AUS · Austin | 2,848 | 76.9% | 72 min | 1.16% | B |
| MCO to MDW · Chicago | 2,723 | 70.0% | 60 min | 1.76% | C |
| MCO to RDU · Raleigh | 2,695 | 76.6% | 75 min | 1.78% | B |
| MCO to DAL · Dallas | 2,643 | 73.2% | 59 min | 1.78% | C |
| MCO to STL · St. Louis | 2,504 | 76.6% | 68 min | 0.76% | B+ |
| MCO to IND · Indianapolis | 2,452 | 74.7% | 65 min | 1.35% | C |
| MCO to MSY · New Orleans | 2,254 | 74.4% | 64 min | 1.15% | 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 31 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am25,001 flights92.0%
- 8am–11am32,149 flights85.4%
- 11am–2pm24,579 flights76.6%
- 2pm–5pm28,141 flights67.7%
- 5pm–8pm29,745 flights62.0%
- 8pm–5am20,325 flights60.8%
Scale runs 50% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 60.8% on time, against 92.0% 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 32,149 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter MCO departures by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On departures from Orlando (MCO), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 92.0% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 60.8%, a wide gap of 31.2 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am92.0%
- 8–11am85.4%
- 11am–2pm76.6%
- 2–5pm67.7%
- 5–8pm62.0%
- 8pm–5am60.8%
best all US flightsScale 50% to 95%.
Across the year
When MCO runs late
MCO's year swings by 16 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 68.2% on time, 16 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. March was the busiest month here, with 15,497 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 82.1% on time and Sunday the weakest at 67.0%, a spread of 15 points.
MCO month by month
From Europe
Transatlantic routes into MCO
11 European airports send scheduled passenger flights to MCO, 7,208 flights a year in both directions by the DOT's international count. The DOT keeps no delay record for international flights; the UK routes carry the CAA's departure punctuality, and every route sets its departure airport's EUROCONTROL figures beside MCO's own record above.
- LGW to MCO · London1,625 flights
- LHR to MCO · London1,232 flights
- MAN to MCO · Manchester1,208 flights
- FRA to MCO · Frankfurt638 flights
- DUB to MCO · Dublin552 flights
- KEF to MCO · Reykjavík531 flights
- CDG to MCO · Paris465 flights
- AMS to MCO · Amsterdam295 flights
- MUC to MCO · Munich284 flights
- MAD to MCO · Madrid250 flights
- EDI to MCO · Edinburgh128 flights
Delay causes
Why MCO gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 43% of the 2.85 million delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%Carrier
- 23%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
43% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 2.85 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 to one. The split is drawn from 2,852,202 reported delay minutes.
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 92.0% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.81% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.28%.
9.5% 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.
159,940 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 68.2%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 156,605 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MCO delay questions
How often is Orlando (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 25.4% of the 159,940 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% 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 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 Orlando (MCO)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.0% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 60.8%, 31 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 68.2% on time, compared with 84.6% in September. Across the year that is 16 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 — Atlanta74.9%
- MCO to EWR — Newark75.0%
- MCO to ORD — Chicago71.1%
- MCO to SJU — San Juan73.8%
- MCO to PHL — Philadelphia71.3%
- MCO to LGA — New York67.5%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record72.6%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record77.9%
- American Airlines on-time record74.4%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record76.3%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- How often a connection fails at the major US hubs
Embed MCO’s on-time badge on your site
Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.
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.