Airport month record

MCOSEP

Orlando International in September 2025

Departures: 11,256
Month: September 2025
National, same month: 83.4%
Carriers: 9

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

MCO in September earns a B+. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it about a point better than the national rate of 83.4%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about an hour. That rests on 11,256 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,525 at 87.8% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the seven carriers covered here at 87.8% on time across 1,525 flights.

On time

84.6%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 11,204 completed departures

Avg delay

60 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.22%

Nationally in September: 0.51%

Whole year

74.3%

MCO across all twelve months

These figures cover 11,256 departures from Orlando International in September 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

September next to MCO's other months

Against MCO's own year, September ran 10 points better than the twelve-month rate of 74.3%, which makes it the best of the twelve months in the data. Cancellations were unusually low for MCO in September, at 0.22% against 1.65% across the year. Either side of it, August ran 67.5% on time and October 75.6%, 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 (this page)	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 September

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 24 points, against 8 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,697 flights95.2%
8am–11am2,498 flights92.7%
11am–2pm1,721 flights86.1%
2pm–5pm2,061 flights80.3%
5pm–8pm1,994 flights71.6%
8pm–5am1,285 flights79.6%

Scale runs 65% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 95.2% of the time, against 71.6% for the evening window. That is 24 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 2,498 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 89.2% on time and Thursday the weakest at 80.8%. 8 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at MCO in September

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 87.8% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 79.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,185 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at MCO in September 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	3,278	84.3%	44 min	0.09%	B+
Delta Air Lines	1,525	87.8%	75 min	0.00%	A+
Spirit Airlines	1,492	86.6%	56 min	0.47%	A+
American Airlines	1,373	80.3%	79 min	0.51%	B+
JetBlue Airways	1,185	79.7%	65 min	0.42%	B+
United Airlines	1,065	87.5%	73 min	0.28%	A+
Frontier Airlines	1,047	87.2%	50 min	0.00%	A+
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	175	79.3%	47 min	0.00%	B+
Republic Airwaysthin sample	90	84.4%	65 min	0.00%	B+

Delta leads JetBlue by 8 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 September

Routes from MCO in September 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
MCO to ATL · Atlanta	564	83.3%	66 min	0.00%	B+
MCO to EWR · Newark	499	83.7%	90 min	1.00%	B
MCO to ORD · Chicago	456	84.6%	69 min	0.22%	B+
MCO to SJU · San Juan	425	82.6%	44 min	0.00%	B+
MCO to PHL · Philadelphia	401	82.2%	57 min	0.25%	B+
MCO to LGA · New York	394	86.4%	76 min	0.25%	A+
MCO to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	376	81.0%	90 min	1.06%	B
MCO to DCA · Washingtonthin sample	359	76.5%	71 min	0.28%	B+
MCO to MIA · Miamithin sample	346	83.4%	57 min	0.29%	B+
MCO to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	346	86.9%	73 min	0.29%	A+
MCO to BWI · Baltimorethin sample	346	90.3%	49 min	0.87%	A+
MCO to CLT · Charlottethin sample	337	87.2%	86 min	0.30%	A+
MCO to DEN · Denverthin sample	318	83.6%	46 min	0.00%	B+
MCO to BOS · Bostonthin sample	288	67.7%	64 min	0.69%	C+
MCO to IAH · Houstonthin sample	270	91.0%	50 min	0.74%	A+
MCO to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	265	83.8%	48 min	0.00%	B+
MCO to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample	255	84.3%	73 min	0.00%	B+
MCO to DTW · Detroitthin sample	249	88.3%	70 min	0.40%	A+
MCO to MDW · Chicagothin sample	215	82.3%	38 min	0.00%	B+
MCO to RDU · Raleighthin sample	204	89.7%	50 min	0.00%	A+
MCO to IAD · Washingtonthin sample	171	90.1%	50 min	0.00%	A+
MCO to CMH · Columbusthin sample	168	77.4%	42 min	0.00%	B+
MCO to AUS · Austinthin sample	157	82.2%	65 min	0.00%	B+
MCO to STL · St. Louisthin sample	156	88.5%	46 min	0.00%	A+
MCO to DAL · Dallasthin sample	154	84.9%	45 min	0.00%	B+

Delay causes

What held MCO up in September

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 104,000 reported delay minutes.

Late-arriving aircraft
33%
Carrier
30%
National Airspace System
30%
Extreme weather
6%
Security
0%

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 95.2% on time here. The split is drawn from 104,453 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.22%, below the national 0.51% 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.

Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.6% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 5.4% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.

What to do with this

Flying from MCO in September

For a September trip through MCO: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 84.6% on time with 0.22% 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 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.

Key figures