Airport month record
MCOAUG
Orlando International in August 2025
- Departures
- 12,746
- Month
- August 2025
- National, same month
- 77.4%
- Carriers
- 9
Historical statistics for August 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s August. For today’s conditions at MCO, see live FAA status.
MCO in August draws a C+. About one flight in three arrives at least 15 minutes late, and the typical late arrival is a little over an hour behind schedule. Build slack into anything you connect to. That rests on 12,746 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,637 at 73.6% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the seven carriers covered here at 73.6% on time across 1,637 flights.
Key figures
On time
67.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 12,611 completed departures
Avg delay
81 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.79%
Nationally in August: 1.08%
Whole year
74.3%
MCO across all twelve months
These figures cover 12,746 departures from Orlando International in August 2025. On time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the DOT's threshold, and the national comparison uses every US departure in the same month rather than the whole year.
Against the year
August next to MCO's other months
Against MCO's own year, August ran 7 points worse than the twelve-month rate of 74.3%, which makes it number eleven of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for MCO in August, at 0.79% against 1.65% across the year. Either side of it, July ran 67.0% on time and September 84.6%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a better stretch.
| Month | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2025 | 13,579 | 67.0% | 84 min | 1.81% | C |
| August 2025 (this page) | 12,746 | 67.5% | 81 min | 0.79% | C+ |
| September 2025 | 11,256 | 84.6% | 60 min | 0.22% | B+ |
| October 2025 | 13,245 | 75.6% | 70 min | 0.55% | B+ |
| November 2025 | 13,206 | 79.1% | 76 min | 1.92% | B |
| December 2025 | 14,287 | 71.7% | 69 min | 1.36% | C |
| January 2026 | 13,786 | 75.4% | 66 min | 3.87% | B− |
| February 2026 | 13,339 | 72.9% | 66 min | 2.61% | C |
| March 2026 | 15,497 | 70.5% | 73 min | 3.96% | C− |
| April 2026 | 14,604 | 77.6% | 60 min | 0.39% | B+ |
| May 2026 | 12,958 | 78.5% | 64 min | 0.70% | B+ |
| June 2026 | 12,541 | 73.3% | 77 min | 1.00% | C |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave MCO in August
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 47 points, against 11 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,035 flights92.2%
- 8am–11am2,732 flights82.6%
- 11am–2pm1,855 flights74.7%
- 2pm–5pm2,203 flights59.4%
- 5pm–8pm2,186 flights45.7%
- 8pm–5am1,735 flights44.8%
Scale runs 35% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 44.8% on time, against 92.2% 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 2,732 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 81.2% on time and Friday the weakest at 58.6%. 23 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at MCO in August
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 73.6% of the time; American Airlines manages 62.1%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,502 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 3,493 | 67.2% | 67 min | 0.37% | C+ |
| Spirit Airlines | 1,700 | 65.1% | 73 min | 0.47% | C+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,637 | 73.6% | 99 min | 0.98% | C+ |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,626 | 65.7% | 80 min | 0.49% | C+ |
| American Airlines | 1,502 | 62.1% | 94 min | 1.60% | D |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,331 | 69.6% | 79 min | 1.43% | C |
| United Airlines | 1,127 | 72.7% | 107 min | 0.80% | C+ |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 204 | 58.5% | 76 min | 1.96% | D |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 93 | 75.3% | 38 min | 0.00% | B+ |
Delta leads American by 11 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Route by route
Busiest routes out of MCO in August
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MCO to ATL · Atlanta | 634 | 66.7% | 86 min | 0.32% | C+ |
| MCO to SJU · San Juan | 525 | 65.7% | 78 min | 0.38% | C+ |
| MCO to EWR · Newark | 512 | 62.6% | 104 min | 0.78% | D+ |
| MCO to ORD · Chicago | 494 | 65.4% | 94 min | 2.23% | C |
| MCO to PHL · Philadelphia | 455 | 70.0% | 72 min | 0.22% | C+ |
| MCO to JFK · New York | 434 | 66.6% | 93 min | 1.38% | C |
| MCO to LGA · New York | 434 | 67.6% | 80 min | 2.07% | C |
| MCO to CLT · Charlotte | 397 | 68.6% | 89 min | 0.25% | C+ |
| MCO to DCA · Washington | 386 | 58.8% | 84 min | 1.30% | D |
| MCO to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 370 | 57.9% | 91 min | 2.97% | D |
| MCO to BWI · Baltimorethin sample | 363 | 64.4% | 64 min | 0.55% | D+ |
| MCO to DEN · Denverthin sample | 358 | 68.2% | 82 min | 0.84% | C+ |
| MCO to MIA · Miamithin sample | 356 | 68.6% | 91 min | 0.56% | C+ |
| MCO to BOS · Bostonthin sample | 352 | 69.0% | 74 min | 0.85% | C+ |
| MCO to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 299 | 69.9% | 109 min | 1.00% | C |
| MCO to DTW · Detroitthin sample | 292 | 76.7% | 75 min | 1.37% | B |
| MCO to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample | 289 | 68.4% | 102 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| MCO to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 264 | 71.5% | 63 min | 0.38% | C+ |
| MCO to MDW · Chicagothin sample | 227 | 65.2% | 65 min | 1.76% | C |
| MCO to RDU · Raleighthin sample | 212 | 67.3% | 83 min | 0.47% | C+ |
| MCO to STL · St. Louisthin sample | 183 | 68.0% | 74 min | 1.09% | C |
| MCO to IAD · Washingtonthin sample | 178 | 76.8% | 115 min | 0.56% | B+ |
| MCO to AUS · Austinthin sample | 174 | 71.9% | 62 min | 1.15% | C |
| MCO to DAL · Dallasthin sample | 171 | 68.4% | 70 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| MCO to BDL · Hartfordthin sample | 168 | 75.4% | 67 min | 0.00% | B+ |
Delay causes
What held MCO up in August
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 332,000 reported delay minutes.
- 41%Late-arriving aircraft
- 22%National Airspace System
- 21%Carrier
- 16%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
Extreme weather accounts for 16% of delay minutes, well above the single-digit share typical across the system. Weather delays are lumpy: they arrive as whole bad days rather than as a steady drag, so the comparison with the other months below is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 7%, so this operation carries roughly 2.3 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 332,194 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.79%, below the national 1.08% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 15.1% 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.
What to do with this
Flying from MCO in August
For a August trip through MCO: plan on this being one of the airport's harder months. The 5am–8am departures held up best at 92.2% on time, and with 15.1% of arrivals an hour or more late, a connection here deserves more slack than the same trip in September would.
Related
Where to go next
- Orlando International (MCO), the whole year
- MCO in July67.0%
- MCO in September84.6%
- MCO in October75.6%
- MCO in November79.1%
- MCO in December71.7%
- MCO in January75.4%
- MCO in February72.9%
- MCO in March70.5%
- MCO in April77.6%
- MCO in May78.5%
- MCO in June73.3%
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.