Carrier route record
WNMHT→MCO
Southwest Airlines · Manchester to Orlando
- Flights
- 492
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 61%
- Carriers
- 2
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Southwest Airlines.
Southwest on MHT to MCO lands a B+, about a point better than the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 492 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 MHT to MCO from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
78.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 484 completed flights
Avg delay
59 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.41%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
79.6%
Every carrier on MHT to MCO, 804 flights
These figures cover 492 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 MHT to MCO
Southwest flew 492 of the 804 flights on MHT to MCO, most of the route. Its 78.1% on time is 2 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 79.6%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from JetBlue at 82.0% to Southwest at 78.1%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 312 | 82.0% | 72 min | 1.60% | B |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 492 | 78.1% | 59 min | 0.41% | 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 50 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am182 flights88.5%
- 8am–11am43 flights79.1%
- 11am–2pm161 flights78.7%
- 2pm–5pm67 flights69.2%
- 5pm–8pm36 flights38.9%
- 8pm–5am3 flights—
Scale runs 30% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 38.9% on time, against 88.5% 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 182 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Southwest on MHT to MCO through the year
July is the worst month at 60.0% on time, 29 points below October, the best at 88.5%. 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. May was the busiest month here, with 66 flights.
Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 90.8% on time and Monday the weakest at 68.8%, a spread of 22 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Southwest on MHT to MCO runs when it is late
Southwest on MHT to MCO often beats the schedule: 122 of 484 completed flights, 25%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 106 late arrivals split 40 under half an hour, 33 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 33 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early122 flights25.2%
- Within 15 min256 flights52.9%
- 15–29 min late40 flights8.3%
- 30–59 min late33 flights6.8%
- 1–2 hours late23 flights4.8%
- 2+ hours late10 flights2.1%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 484 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
A late pushback is often recovered here: of 109 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, 36 still arrived on time. In the other direction, 33 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at MCO.
The worst days
Worst days for Southwest on MHT to MCO
The latest arrival of the period was on 1 November 2025, 5 hours 23 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The five worst days are spread across November, July, February and August, with no single month standing out.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 1 November 2025 | 5 hours 23 minutes | Carrier |
| 20 July 2026 | 5 hours 20 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 13 February 2026 | 4 hours 13 minutes | Carrier |
| 2 August 2026 | 4 hours 8 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 27 February 2026 | 3 hours 48 minutes | National Airspace System |
Delay causes
Why Southwest 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 6,231 reported delay minutes.
- 38%National Airspace System
- 33%Carrier
- 29%Late-arriving aircraft
- 0%Security
38% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 2,348 minutes out of 6,231, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 6,231 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 88.5% on time here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.41%, 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
6.8% 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 an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 1,142 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 76.1% on time across 492 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. 492 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 MHT to MCO
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 492 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 78.1% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 484 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
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.