Route reliability record
MCO→BOS
Orlando to Boston
- Flights
- 4,614
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,121 mi
- Carriers
- 6
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.2% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about seven flights in ten arrive on time, worth a C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 4,614 MCO to BOS flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,257 at 77.0% on time.
Best time to fly MCO to BOS: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 92.5% of the time and Wednesday flights 75.8%, against 71.1% for the route overall.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 77.0% on time across 1,257 flights.
Key figures
On time
71.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,459 completed flights
Avg delay
76 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.23%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
77.0% on time across 1,257 flights
These figures cover 4,614 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on MCO to BOS
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 77.0% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 67.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 2,527 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 3 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 151 | 90.7% | 63 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,257 | 77.0% | 72 min | 2.23% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 392 | 70.1% | 54 min | 4.59% | C− |
| JetBlue Airways | 2,527 | 67.4% | 80 min | 3.72% | C− |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 284 | 66.8% | 80 min | 3.17% | C− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 4.6% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Flight by flight
Flights on MCO to BOS
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Orlando to Boston
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 3 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. MCO → PVDOrlando to Providence | Southwest Airlines | 76.6% | 77.6% | 1.34% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 2. MCO → MHTOrlando to Manchester | Southwest Airlines | 75.9% | 76.1% | 0.20% | 8am–11am, Thu | — |
| 3. MCO → BOSOrlando to Boston | Delta Air Lines | 75.3% | 77.0% | 2.23% | 5am–8am, Wed | DL 2436 07:00 |
| 4. MCO → BOSOrlando to Boston | Spirit Airlines | 66.9% | 70.1% | 4.59% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 5. MCO → PVDOrlando to Providence | JetBlue Airways | 65.1% | 66.9% | 2.63% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
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 36 points, against 10 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,005 flights92.5%
- 8am–11am620 flights80.4%
- 11am–2pm1,145 flights68.6%
- 2pm–5pm663 flights56.4%
- 5pm–8pm687 flights56.5%
- 8pm–5am494 flights60.1%
Scale runs 50% to 100%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.5% of the time, against 56.4% for the afternoon window. That is 36 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 1,145 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter MCO to BOS by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On MCO to BOS, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 92.5% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 56.4%, a wide gap of 36.1 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am92.5%
- 8–11am80.4%
- 11am–2pm68.6%
- 2–5pm56.4%
- 5–8pm56.5%
- 8pm–5am60.1%
best all US flightsScale 50% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 18 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.
May is the best month on the calendar at 83.4% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. April was the busiest month here, with 522 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 75.8% on time and Sunday the weakest at 66.0%, a spread of 10 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
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 98,000 reported delay minutes.
- 40%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%National Airspace System
- 23%Carrier
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
40% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 98,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 11 to one. The split is drawn from 98,239 reported delay minutes.
33% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 32,000 minutes out of 98,000, against a national NAS share of 21%.
Cancellations run at 3.23%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
12.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The 1,121 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.
The return leg runs 69.5% on time across 4,605 flights, within 2 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 4,614 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in BOS after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.23% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 4,459 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MCO to BOS questions
How often is MCO to BOS delayed?
Roughly one flight in three arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 28.9% of the 4,614 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on MCO to BOS?
Delta Air Lines leads at 77.0% on time across 1,257 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 67.4%, a gap of 10 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 MCO to BOS?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.5% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 56.4%, 36 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 October delays on MCO to BOS?
October is the weakest month at 65.2% on time, compared with 83.4% in May. Across the year that is 18 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- BOS to MCO — the return legseparate record
- Orlando International (MCO) delay statistics
- Boston Logan International (BOS) delay statistics
- Frontier Airlines on MCO to BOS90.7%
- Delta Air Lines on MCO to BOS77.0%
- Spirit Airlines on MCO to BOS70.1%
- JetBlue Airways on MCO to BOS67.4%
- American Airlines on MCO to BOS66.8%
- MCO to ATL, a related route74.9%
- DCA to BOS, a related route70.1%
- MCO to EWR, a related route75.0%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record100.0%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record90.7%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record77.0%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. MCO to BOS and BOS to MCO are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.