Route reliability record
MCO→CLE
Orlando to Cleveland
- Flights
- 2,123
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 895 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 2,123 MCO to CLE flights, of which United Airlines flew 543 at 85.2% on time.
Best time to fly MCO to CLE: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 86.6% of the time and Wednesday flights 84.9%, against 76.9% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, 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.
Key figures
On time
76.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,096 completed flights
Avg delay
78 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.08%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
85.2% on time across 543 flights
These figures cover 2,123 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.4% 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 CLE
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 85.2% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 72.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,255 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 543 | 85.2% | 84 min | 0.55% | A+ |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 325 | 78.6% | 46 min | 0.92% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,255 | 72.9% | 82 min | 1.35% | C |
The spread between United and Frontier is 12 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 12 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on MCO to CLE
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 Cleveland
Every airline on this route, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time, with its best departure time and most punctual flight number. No nearby airport pair beat these.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. MCO → CLEOrlando to Cleveland | United Airlines | 84.7% | 85.2% | 0.55% | 11am–2pm, Wed | UA 486 11:35 |
| 2. MCO → CLEOrlando to Cleveland | Frontier Airlines | 71.9% | 72.9% | 1.35% | 8am–11am, Wed | F9 1915 05:20 |
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 28 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am259 flights85.6%
- 8am–11am239 flights86.6%
- 11am–2pm553 flights85.1%
- 2pm–5pm405 flights76.1%
- 5pm–8pm370 flights67.4%
- 8pm–5am297 flights58.8%
Scale runs 50% to 90%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 58.8% on time, against 86.6% for the 8am–11am 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 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 553 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter MCO to CLE 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 CLE, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 86.6% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 58.8%, a wide gap of 27.8 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am85.6%
- 8–11am86.6%
- 11am–2pm85.1%
- 2–5pm76.1%
- 5–8pm67.4%
- 8pm–5am58.8%
best all US flightsScale 50% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 27 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.
August is the worst month at 62.8% on time, 27 points below September, the best at 89.9%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. March was the busiest month here, with 235 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 84.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 68.8%, a spread of 16 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 56% of the 38,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 56%Late-arriving aircraft
- 25%Carrier
- 13%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
56% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 38,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 12 to one. The split is drawn from 37,505 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 8am–11am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 86.6% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.08% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.19%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
9.4% 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 895 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 79.4% on time across 2,125 flights, within 3 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 2,123 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 CLE after this flight
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 89.9% on time and August 62.8%, a swing of 27 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 2,096 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MCO to CLE questions
How often is MCO to CLE delayed?
Roughly one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.1% of the 2,123 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 CLE?
United Airlines leads at 85.2% on time across 543 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 72.9%, a gap of 12 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 CLE?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 86.6% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 58.8%, 28 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 August delays on MCO to CLE?
August is the weakest month at 62.8% on time, compared with 89.9% in September. Across the year that is 27 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
- CLE to MCO — the return legseparate record
- Orlando International (MCO) delay statistics
- Cleveland Hopkins International (CLE) delay statistics
- United Airlines on MCO to CLE85.2%
- Southwest Airlines on MCO to CLE78.6%
- Frontier Airlines on MCO to CLE72.9%
- MCO to ATL, a related route74.9%
- ORD to CLE, a related route70.8%
- MCO to EWR, a related route75.0%
- United Airlines on-time record85.2%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record78.6%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record72.9%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
Direction matters. MCO to CLE and CLE 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.