Airport month record

MCOMAY

Orlando International in May 2026

Departures: 12,958
Month: May 2026
National, same month: 78.6%
Carriers: 9

Historical statistics for May 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s May. For today’s conditions at MCO, see live FAA status.

MCO in May lands a B+, level with the national rate of 78.6%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 12,958 flights, of which Frontier Airlines flew 1,625 at 86.4% on time.

Frontier Airlines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 86.4% on time across 1,625 flights.

On time

78.5%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 12,834 completed departures

Avg delay

64 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.70%

Nationally in May: 0.92%

Whole year

74.3%

MCO across all twelve months

These figures cover 12,958 departures from Orlando International in May 2026. 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

May next to MCO's other months

Against MCO's own year, May ran 4 points better than the twelve-month rate of 74.3%, which makes it number three of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for MCO in May, at 0.70% against 1.65% across the year. Either side of it, April ran 77.6% on time and June 73.3%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.

MCO month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	13,579	67.0%	84 min	1.81%	C
August 2025	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 (this page)	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 May

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 29 points, against 15 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am2,121 flights93.1%
8am–11am2,634 flights90.3%
11am–2pm1,875 flights82.1%
2pm–5pm2,190 flights71.9%
5pm–8pm2,470 flights66.0%
8pm–5am1,668 flights64.3%

Scale runs 55% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 64.3% on time, against 93.1% 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. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 2,634 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 80.5% on time and Saturday the weakest at 75.6%. 5 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at MCO in May

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Frontier Airlines arrives on time 86.4% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 71.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 4,586 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at MCO in May 2026
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	4,586	71.7%	52 min	0.78%	C+
Delta Air Lines	1,877	82.0%	80 min	1.23%	B
American Airlines	1,758	75.1%	77 min	0.80%	B+
Frontier Airlines	1,625	86.4%	67 min	0.25%	A+
JetBlue Airways	1,555	85.0%	63 min	0.00%	A+
United Airlines	1,276	85.6%	86 min	0.31%	A+
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	198	79.2%	46 min	0.51%	B+
Spirit Airlinesthin sample	46	51.4%	61 min	19.57%	F−
Allegiant Airthin sample	37	73.0%	49 min	0.00%	C+

The spread between Frontier and Southwest is 15 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 15 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of MCO in May

Routes from MCO in May 2026
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
MCO to ATL · Atlanta	723	76.2%	82 min	0.83%	B+
MCO to ORD · Chicago	503	73.7%	74 min	0.60%	C+
MCO to EWR · Newark	485	86.5%	91 min	0.21%	A+
MCO to SJU · San Juan	476	79.7%	49 min	0.21%	B+
MCO to PHL · Philadelphia	449	80.8%	92 min	0.22%	B+
MCO to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	426	74.3%	67 min	2.82%	C
MCO to JFK · New York	399	84.1%	88 min	0.50%	B+
MCO to CLT · Charlotte	395	82.0%	101 min	0.00%	B+
MCO to DCA · Washington	395	77.4%	55 min	0.76%	B+
MCO to LGA · New York	371	75.2%	65 min	1.89%	B
MCO to BWI · Baltimore	369	79.2%	54 min	0.81%	B+
MCO to DEN · Denverthin sample	351	85.3%	56 min	0.57%	A+
MCO to BOS · Bostonthin sample	344	83.4%	73 min	0.29%	B+
MCO to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample	317	82.3%	55 min	0.32%	B+
MCO to MIA · Miamithin sample	301	69.7%	60 min	0.33%	C+
MCO to IAH · Houstonthin sample	275	83.9%	92 min	0.73%	B+
MCO to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	261	75.1%	47 min	0.00%	B+
MCO to DAL · Dallasthin sample	238	69.6%	52 min	2.10%	C
MCO to AUS · Austinthin sample	238	73.8%	67 min	1.68%	C
MCO to RDU · Raleighthin sample	229	82.9%	71 min	0.44%	B+
MCO to DTW · Detroitthin sample	224	81.2%	57 min	0.45%	B+
MCO to STL · St. Louisthin sample	216	78.7%	56 min	1.85%	B
MCO to CLE · Clevelandthin sample	210	86.1%	73 min	0.00%	A+
MCO to MDW · Chicagothin sample	200	74.6%	58 min	0.50%	C+
MCO to IAD · Washingtonthin sample	197	83.2%	77 min	0.00%	B+

Delay causes

What held MCO up in May

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 42% of the 175,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.

Late-arriving aircraft
42%
Carrier
31%
National Airspace System
22%
Extreme weather
4%
Security
0%

42% 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 175,000 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 175,217 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.70%, below the national 0.92% 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.

6.8% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 7.1%. 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 last about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

What to do with this

Flying from MCO in May

For a May trip through MCO: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 78.5% on time with 0.70% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.

Orlando International (MCO), the whole year
MCO in July67.0%
MCO in August67.5%
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 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.

Key figures