Airport month record

MCOOCT

Orlando International in October 2025

Departures: 13,245
Month: October 2025
National, same month: 79.7%
Carriers: 9

Historical statistics for October 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s October. For today’s conditions at MCO, see live FAA status.

MCO in October sits in the middle of the pack with a B+. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 4 points worse than the national rate of 79.7%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 13,245 flights, of which Frontier Airlines flew 1,268 at 81.5% on time.

Frontier Airlines is the most reliable of the seven carriers covered here at 81.5% on time across 1,268 flights.

On time

75.6%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 13,150 completed departures

Avg delay

70 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.55%

Nationally in October: 0.53%

Whole year

74.3%

MCO across all twelve months

These figures cover 13,245 departures from Orlando International in October 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

October next to MCO's other months

Against MCO's own year, October ran about a point better than the twelve-month rate of 74.3%, which makes it number five of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for MCO in October, at 0.55% against 1.65% across the year. Either side of it, September ran 84.6% on time and November 79.1%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a better 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 (this page)	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 October

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 32 points, against 11 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,993 flights93.2%
8am–11am2,886 flights84.6%
11am–2pm2,043 flights79.4%
2pm–5pm2,342 flights69.6%
5pm–8pm2,430 flights61.1%
8pm–5am1,551 flights63.0%

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

The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 61.1% on time, against 93.2% 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 2,886 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 89.6% on time and Monday the weakest at 58.4%. 31 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at MCO in October

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Frontier Airlines arrives on time 81.5% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 70.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,387 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at MCO in October 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	4,383	72.3%	56 min	0.50%	C+
Delta Air Lines	1,687	80.2%	86 min	0.41%	B+
American Airlines	1,561	77.0%	96 min	0.64%	B+
Spirit Airlines	1,495	75.9%	69 min	0.94%	B+
JetBlue Airways	1,387	70.9%	71 min	0.50%	C+
Frontier Airlines	1,268	81.5%	80 min	0.55%	B+
United Airlines	1,178	78.4%	75 min	0.34%	B+
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	182	77.8%	71 min	1.10%	B
Republic Airwaysthin sample	75	89.3%	93 min	0.00%	A+

Frontier leads JetBlue 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 October

Routes from MCO in October 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
MCO to ATL · Atlanta	663	76.1%	77 min	0.60%	B+
MCO to EWR · Newark	541	68.5%	88 min	0.37%	C+
MCO to ORD · Chicago	533	74.2%	72 min	0.56%	C+
MCO to PHL · Philadelphia	457	72.1%	74 min	0.22%	C+
MCO to SJU · San Juan	446	77.3%	55 min	0.45%	B+
MCO to LGA · New York	424	69.3%	82 min	1.42%	C
MCO to DCA · Washington	397	74.5%	61 min	0.25%	C+
MCO to CLT · Charlotte	392	82.5%	91 min	0.77%	B+
MCO to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	386	77.0%	65 min	1.81%	B
MCO to JFK · New York	373	77.2%	81 min	1.07%	B
MCO to DEN · Denver	369	81.2%	60 min	0.27%	B+
MCO to BWI · Baltimore	365	82.4%	55 min	0.55%	B+
MCO to MIA · Miamithin sample	356	80.3%	84 min	0.00%	B+
MCO to BOS · Bostonthin sample	333	65.2%	73 min	1.50%	C
MCO to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	325	71.6%	75 min	0.31%	C+
MCO to DTW · Detroitthin sample	320	76.6%	90 min	0.00%	B+
MCO to IAH · Houstonthin sample	309	83.7%	59 min	0.65%	B+
MCO to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample	281	79.7%	80 min	0.00%	B+
MCO to IND · Indianapolisthin sample	248	77.6%	97 min	0.81%	B+
MCO to MDW · Chicagothin sample	246	68.6%	42 min	0.41%	C+
MCO to RDU · Raleighthin sample	234	82.4%	84 min	0.43%	B+
MCO to DAL · Dallasthin sample	228	71.2%	63 min	1.75%	C
MCO to MSY · New Orleansthin sample	216	75.8%	61 min	0.46%	B+
MCO to AUS · Austinthin sample	212	77.8%	62 min	0.00%	B+
MCO to CMH · Columbusthin sample	203	70.4%	62 min	0.00%	C+

Delay causes

What held MCO up in October

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 226,000 reported delay minutes.

Late-arriving aircraft
37%
Carrier
29%
National Airspace System
29%
Extreme weather
5%
Security
0%

37% 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 226,000 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 split is drawn from 225,575 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.55%, below the national 0.53% 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.

8.6% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 6.3%. 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

What to do with this

Flying from MCO in October

For a October trip through MCO: expect 75.6% on time and 0.55% cancelled, going by October 2025. The 5am–8am window was the strongest part of the day.

Orlando International (MCO), the whole year
MCO in July67.0%
MCO in August67.5%
MCO in September84.6%
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.

Key figures