Carrier route record
WNMCO→PHX
Southwest Airlines · Orlando to Phoenix
- Flights
- 841
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 46%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Southwest Airlines.
Southwest on MCO to PHX lands a B+, 2 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about 55 minutes on average. That rests on 841 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 Southwest on MCO to PHX from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
78.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 837 completed flights
Avg delay
54 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.36%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
78.9%
Every carrier on MCO to PHX, 1,844 flights
These figures cover 841 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 3 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
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Carrier by carrier
Southwest against every carrier on MCO to PHX
Southwest flew 841 of the 1,844 flights on MCO to PHX, about 46% of it. Its 78.9% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 78.9%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Frontier at 82.9% to American at 78.0%. One 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 Airlinesthin sample | 207 | 82.9% | 44 min | 0.97% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 841 | 78.9% | 54 min | 0.36% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 796 | 78.0% | 103 min | 0.63% | B+ |
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Departure window
When Southwest runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 28 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am274 flights93.1%
- 8am–11am88 flights86.4%
- 11am–2pm88 flights85.1%
- 2pm–5pm67 flights67.2%
- 5pm–8pm238 flights65.0%
- 8pm–5am86 flights66.7%
Scale runs 55% to 100%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 93.1% of the time, against 65.0% for the evening window. That is 28 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 274 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Southwest on MCO to PHX through the year
November is the best month on the calendar at 88.2% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. December was the busiest month here, with 91 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 87.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 72.3%, a spread of 15 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Southwest on MCO to PHX runs when it is late
Southwest on MCO to PHX often beats the schedule: 227 of 837 completed flights, 27%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. Most of the lateness is short. 90 of the 177 late arrivals were under half an hour behind, and 51 reached an hour or more.
- 15+ min early227 flights27.1%
- Within 15 min433 flights51.7%
- 15–29 min late90 flights10.8%
- 30–59 min late36 flights4.3%
- 1–2 hours late31 flights3.7%
- 2+ hours late20 flights2.4%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 837 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
A late pushback is often recovered here: of 272 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, 122 still arrived on time. 27 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for Southwest on MCO to PHX
The latest arrival of the period was on 6 August 2026, 4 hours 49 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as a late-arriving aircraft. The five worst days are spread across August, October, November and May, with no single month standing out.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 6 August 2026 | 4 hours 49 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 11 October 2025 | 3 hours 36 minutes | Carrier |
| 9 November 2025 | 3 hours 36 minutes | Carrier |
| 2 May 2026 | 3 hours 36 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 26 August 2026 | 3 hours 36 minutes | Extreme weather |
Delay causes
Why Southwest runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 44% of the 9,558 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 29%Carrier
- 17%National Airspace System
- 10%Extreme weather
- 1%Security
44% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 9,558 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 to one. The split is drawn from 9,558 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 93.1% on time here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.36%, below the national 1.89% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
6.1% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last about 55 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 1,849 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
The return leg runs 76.5% on time across 857 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.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 841 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 Southwest on MCO to PHX
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 841 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 78.9% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 837 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- MCO to PHX, every carrier
- Southwest on PHX to MCO, the return leg
- Frontier Airlines on MCO to PHX82.9%
- American Airlines on MCO to PHX78.0%
- Southwest Airlines network-wide record
- Orlando International (MCO) delay statistics
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
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.