Route reliability record
MCO→MIA
Orlando to Miami
- Flights
- 3,700
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 192 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 3,700 MCO to MIA flights, of which American Airlines flew 2,975 at 75.9% on time.
Best time to fly MCO to MIA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.7% of the time and Tuesday flights 80.6%, against 74.8% 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
74.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,654 completed flights
Avg delay
76 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.16%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
75.9% on time across 2,975 flights
These figures cover 3,700 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.2% 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 MIA
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 75.9% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 67.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 615 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 110 | 85.5% | 52 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| American Airlines | 2,975 | 75.9% | 83 min | 1.18% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 615 | 67.7% | 53 min | 1.30% | C |
American leads Southwest by 8 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Flight by flight
Flights on MCO to MIA
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 Miami
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. 2 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. MCO → MIAOrlando to Miami | American Airlines | 75.0% | 75.9% | 1.18% | 5am–8am, Tue | AA 2894 06:00 |
| 2. MCO → FLLOrlando to Fort Lauderdale | Spirit Airlines | 69.0% | 70.4% | 1.96% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 3. MCO → FLLOrlando to Fort Lauderdale | Southwest Airlines | 68.9% | 69.5% | 0.80% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
| 4. MCO → MIAOrlando to Miami | Southwest Airlines | 66.8% | 67.7% | 1.30% | 11am–2pm, Mon | — |
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 38 points, against 8 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am767 flights91.7%
- 8am–11am1,035 flights86.3%
- 11am–2pm430 flights81.9%
- 2pm–5pm364 flights54.2%
- 5pm–8pm548 flights53.5%
- 8pm–5am556 flights58.4%
Scale runs 45% to 95%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 53.5% on time, against 91.7% for the 5am–8am 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 1,035 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter MCO to MIA 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 MIA, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 91.7% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 53.5%, a wide gap of 38.2 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am91.7%
- 8–11am86.3%
- 11am–2pm81.9%
- 2–5pm54.2%
- 5–8pm53.5%
- 8pm–5am58.4%
best all US flightsScale 45% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 15 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.
June is the worst month at 68.7% on time, 15 points below September, the best at 83.4%. 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. October was the busiest month here, with 356 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 80.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 61.4%, a spread of 19 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 56% of the 70,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 56%Late-arriving aircraft
- 27%Carrier
- 11%National Airspace System
- 6%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 70,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 10 to one. The split is drawn from 70,151 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 91.7% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.16% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.08%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
9.2% 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.
At 192 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg runs 73.4% on time across 3,700 flights, within about a point 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 3,700 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 MIA 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 83.4% on time and June 68.7%, a swing of 15 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 3,654 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MCO to MIA questions
How often is MCO to MIA delayed?
About 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 25.2% of the 3,700 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 MIA?
American Airlines leads at 75.9% on time across 2,975 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 67.7%, 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 MCO to MIA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.7% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 53.5%, 38 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 June delays on MCO to MIA?
June is the weakest month at 68.7% on time, compared with 83.4% in September. Across the year that is 15 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
- MIA to MCO — the return legseparate record
- Orlando International (MCO) delay statistics
- Miami International (MIA) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on MCO to MIA85.5%
- American Airlines on MCO to MIA75.9%
- Southwest Airlines on MCO to MIA67.7%
- MCO to ATL, a related route74.9%
- ATL to MIA, a related route71.2%
- MCO to EWR, a related route75.0%
- Republic Airways on-time record85.5%
- American Airlines on-time record75.9%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record67.7%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- How often a connection fails at the major US hubs
Direction matters. MCO to MIA and MIA 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.