Carrier route record
NKORF→MCO
Spirit Airlines · Norfolk to Orlando
- Flights
- 244
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 30%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Spirit Airlines.
Spirit on ORF to MCO lands a B−, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 244 flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate Spirit on ORF 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
76.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 227 completed flights
Avg delay
70 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
6.56%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
76.6%
Every carrier on ORF to MCO, 808 flights
These figures cover 244 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.4% 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
Spirit against every carrier on ORF to MCO
Spirit flew 244 of the 808 flights on ORF to MCO, about 30% of it. Its 76.7% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 76.6%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Southwest at 76.8% to Frontier at 75.8%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 382 | 76.8% | 66 min | 0.26% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlines (this page)thin sample | 244 | 76.7% | 70 min | 6.56% | B− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 182 | 75.8% | 71 min | 2.20% | B |
Departure window
When Spirit runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 18 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am113 flights85.9%
- 8am–11am8 flights—
- 11am–2pm8 flights—
- 2pm–5pm7 flights—
- 5pm–8pm90 flights67.8%
- 8pm–5am18 flights—
Scale runs 60% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 85.9% of the time, against 67.8% for the evening window. That is 18 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 113 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Spirit on ORF to MCO through the year
- Jul–Sep 202582 flights77.5%
- Oct–Dec 202568 flights74.6%
- Jan–Mar 202671 flights77.6%
- Apr–Jun 202623 flights—
Scale runs 65% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 76.7% on time across 244 flights.
Quarter by quarter Spirit on ORF to MCO held fairly steady: 77.5% in Jul–Sep 2025, 74.6% in Oct–Dec 2025 and 77.6% in Jan–Mar 2026. A spread of 3 points is about what a sample of this size moves on its own, so the annual figure is a fair summary.
Across the week, Monday is the strongest day at 78.9% on time and Saturday the weakest at 66.7%. 12 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why Spirit runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. National Airspace System accounts for 51% of the 3,694 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 51%National Airspace System
- 25%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%Carrier
51% 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 1,882 minutes out of 3,694, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 3,694 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 6.56%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in fifteen cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
8.4% 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 last a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 655 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 60.4% on time across 244 flights, 16 points below 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 16 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 244 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 Spirit on ORF to MCO
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 6.56% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 227 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- ORF to MCO, every carrier
- Spirit on MCO to ORF, the return leg
- Southwest Airlines on ORF to MCO76.8%
- Frontier Airlines on ORF to MCO75.8%
- Spirit Airlines network-wide record
- Orlando International (MCO) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.