Route reliability record

MCO→PIT

Orlando to Pittsburgh

Flights: 2,178
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Distance: 834 mi
Carriers: 4

This route sits in the middle of the pack with a B. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 2,178 flights, of which Southwest Airlines flew 1,590 at 75.9% on time.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, 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.

On time

75.6%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,147 completed flights

Avg delay

63 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.24%

National rate is 1.81%

Best carrier

Southwest

75.9% on time across 1,590 flights

These figures cover 2,178 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.

Carrier by carrier

Which airline is most reliable on MCO to PIT

The two carriers here are closely matched: about a point separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.

On-time performance by carrier on MCO to PIT
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	128	78.9%	66 min	0.00%	B+
Southwest Airlines	1,590	75.9%	60 min	0.75%	B+
Spirit Airlines	432	74.6%	73 min	3.47%	C−
Republic Airwaysthin sample	28	60.7%	46 min	0.00%	D+

Spirit Airlines cancels 3.5% 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.

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 about a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am424 flights96.4%
8am–11am316 flights86.7%
11am–2pm176 flights74.7%
2pm–5pm510 flights69.6%
5pm–8pm382 flights67.5%
8pm–5am370 flights58.4%

Scale runs 50% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 58.4% on time, against 96.4% 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 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 510 flights scheduled in it.

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.

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.September best, March worst

September is the best month on the calendar at 89.3% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. March was the busiest month here, with 217 flights.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 83.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 68.9%. 15 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

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 33,000 reported delay minutes.

Late-arriving aircraft
41%
Carrier
31%
National Airspace System
20%
Extreme weather
7%
Security
0%

41% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 33,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 32,740 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 96.4% on time here.

Cancellations sit at 1.24% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.18%.

Connections and stage length

What a delay here actually costs

8.5% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route are the about an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.

The 834 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. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.

The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 79.7% on time across 2,184 flights, 4 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 4 points of difference.

The sample behind these figures is 2,178 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.

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 89.3% on time and March 62.2%, a swing of 27 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of March before you think about anything else. 2,147 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Common questions

MCO to PIT questions

How often is MCO to PIT delayed?

About one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 24.4% of the 2,178 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.

Which airline is most reliable on MCO to PIT?

Southwest Airlines leads at 75.9% on time across 1,590 flights. Spirit Airlines is at the other end on 74.6%, a gap of about a point. 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 PIT?

The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 96.4% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 58.4%, 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 March delays on MCO to PIT?

March is the weakest month at 62.2% on time, compared with 89.3% 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.

Where to go next

Direction matters. MCO to PIT and PIT to MCO are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures