Route reliability record

CMH→MCO

Columbus to Orlando

Flights: 2,168
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Distance: 802 mi
Carriers: 4

This route lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.6%. Roughly one flight in five arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 2,168 flights, of which Southwest Airlines flew 1,524 at 80.0% on time.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.

On time

77.9%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,128 completed flights

Avg delay

74 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.43%

National rate is 1.81%

Best carrier

Southwest

80.0% on time across 1,524 flights

These figures cover 2,168 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.

Carrier by carrier

Which airline is most reliable on CMH to MCO

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Southwest Airlines arrives on time 80.0% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 72.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 387 flights means less than a ten-point one.

On-time performance by carrier on CMH to MCO
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Republic Airwaysthin sample	28	82.1%	71 min	0.00%	B+
Southwest Airlines	1,524	80.0%	65 min	1.05%	B
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	229	72.6%	103 min	2.62%	C
Spirit Airlines	387	72.2%	85 min	2.33%	C

Southwest leads Spirit by 8 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.

Departure window

The best time of day to leave

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 25 points, against 8 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am549 flights90.9%
8am–11am317 flights87.0%
11am–2pm320 flights78.3%
2pm–5pm342 flights69.7%
5pm–8pm419 flights65.7%
8pm–5am221 flights67.4%

Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.9% of the time, against 65.7% for the evening window. That is 25 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 549 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

When delays peak on this route

This route's year swings by 14 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.

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.September best, March worst

September is the best month on the calendar at 85.1% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. March was the busiest month here, with 238 flights.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 84.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.9%. 12 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Delay causes

Why this route gets delayed

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 47% of the 35,000 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
47%
National Airspace System
27%
Carrier
23%
Extreme weather
2%
Security
0%

47% 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 35,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 19 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 35,018 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 90.9% on time here.

Cancellations sit at 1.43% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.42%.

Connections and stage length

What a delay here actually costs

8.5% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. 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 are the a little over an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.

The 802 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.

The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 71.6% on time across 2,171 flights, 6 points below this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 6 points of difference.

The sample behind these figures is 2,168 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.

What to do with this

Booking this route

Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 85.1% on time and March 71.2%, a swing of 14 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of March before you think about anything else. 2,128 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Common questions

CMH to MCO questions

How often is CMH to MCO delayed?

Roughly one flight in five arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 22.1% of the 2,168 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.

Which airline is most reliable on CMH to MCO?

Southwest Airlines leads at 80.0% on time across 1,524 flights. Spirit Airlines is at the other end on 72.2%, a gap of 8 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 CMH to MCO?

The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 65.7%, 25 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 March delays on CMH to MCO?

March is the weakest month at 71.2% on time, compared with 85.1% in September. Across the year that is 14 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.

Where to go next

Direction matters. CMH to MCO and MCO to CMH are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures