Carrier route record
DLMCO→CVG
Delta Air Lines · Orlando to Cincinnati
- Flights
- 721
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 40%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Delta Air Lines.
Delta on MCO to CVG sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 4 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 721 flights, with a median arrival 3 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate Delta on MCO to CVG from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
73.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 708 completed flights
Avg delay
89 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.66%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
74.7%
Every carrier on MCO to CVG, 1,790 flights
These figures cover 721 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.9% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Delta against every carrier on MCO to CVG
Delta flew 721 of the 1,790 flights on MCO to CVG, about 40% of it. Its 73.6% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 74.7%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Frontier at 76.4% to Republic at 61.5%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frontier Airlines | 820 | 76.4% | 79 min | 1.59% | B |
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 721 | 73.6% | 89 min | 1.66% | C |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 235 | 72.7% | 61 min | 1.28% | C |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 14 | 61.5% | 45 min | 7.14% | D− |
Flight by flight
Delta flight numbers on MCO to CVG
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Departure window
When Delta runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 11 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am3 flights—
- 11am–2pm362 flights78.9%
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm356 flights68.2%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 60% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The best window here is not the first bank but the 11am–2pm slot at 78.9% on time, ahead of 5pm–8pm at 68.2%. Where the curve peaks mid-day rather than at dawn, the constraint is usually congestion at one end rather than the aircraft's own rotation. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 362 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Delta on MCO to CVG through the year
April is the best month on the calendar at 83.3% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. January was the busiest month here, with 62 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 84.3% on time and Friday the weakest at 60.8%, a spread of 24 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Delta on MCO to CVG runs when it is late
The 187 late arrivals split 58 under half an hour, 59 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 70 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early158 flights22.3%
- Within 15 min363 flights51.3%
- 15–29 min late58 flights8.2%
- 30–59 min late59 flights8.3%
- 1–2 hours late35 flights4.9%
- 2+ hours late35 flights4.9%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 708 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
26 of 179 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 15% of them. 34 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for Delta on MCO to CVG
The latest arrival of the period was on 15 February 2026, 14 hours 30 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on five of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 15 February 2026 | 14 hours 30 minutes | Carrier |
| 27 June 2026 | 14 hours 22 minutes | Carrier |
| 24 October 2025 | 13 hours 37 minutes | Carrier |
| 21 July 2026 | 13 hours 5 minutes | Carrier |
| 18 March 2026 | 10 hours 40 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why Delta runs late on this route
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 17,000 reported delay minutes.
- 42%Carrier
- 41%Late-arriving aircraft
- 12%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
41% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 17,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 to one. The split is drawn from 16,607 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 42%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 6,928 of the 17,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.66% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.14%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
9.9% 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 757 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 80.7% on time across 721 flights, 7 points above 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 7 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 721 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking Delta on MCO to CVG
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 721 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 73.6% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 708 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- MCO to CVG, every carrier
- Delta on CVG to MCO, the return leg
- Frontier Airlines on MCO to CVG76.4%
- Southwest Airlines on MCO to CVG72.7%
- Delta Air Lines network-wide record
- Orlando International (MCO) delay statistics
- Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International (CVG) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- How often a connection fails at the major US hubs
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.