Carrier route record
WNPHX→MCO
Southwest Airlines · Phoenix to Orlando
- Flights
- 857
- 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 PHX to MCO lands a B+, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about 45 minutes on average. That rests on 857 flights, with a median arrival 1 minute late.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate Southwest on PHX 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
76.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 846 completed flights
Avg delay
44 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.58%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
74.2%
Every carrier on PHX to MCO, 1,857 flights
These figures cover 857 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. On-time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the same threshold the Department of Transportation uses in its own reports. Cancelled and diverted flights are excluded from the on-time rate and counted separately, which is why the cancellation column matters on its own.
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Carrier by carrier
Southwest against every carrier on PHX to MCO
Southwest flew 857 of the 1,857 flights on PHX to MCO, about 46% of it. Its 76.5% on time is 2 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 74.2%. Ranked by on-time rate it is first of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Southwest at 76.5% to American at 71.7%. 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 (this page) | 857 | 76.5% | 44 min | 0.58% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 208 | 74.6% | 68 min | 1.44% | C |
| American Airlines | 792 | 71.7% | 57 min | 0.63% | C+ |
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 51 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am129 flights92.9%
- 8am–11am162 flights77.5%
- 11am–2pm130 flights65.3%
- 2pm–5pm64 flights42.2%
- 5pm–8pm7 flights—
- 8pm–5am365 flights79.9%
Scale runs 35% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.9% of the time, against 42.2% for the afternoon window. That is 51 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 365 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Southwest on PHX to MCO through the year
September is the best month on the calendar at 91.8% 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, Tuesday is the strongest day at 85.0% on time and Thursday the weakest at 62.5%, a spread of 23 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Southwest on PHX to MCO runs when it is late
The 199 late arrivals split 97 under half an hour, 65 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 37 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early114 flights13.5%
- Within 15 min533 flights63.0%
- 15–29 min late97 flights11.5%
- 30–59 min late65 flights7.7%
- 1–2 hours late22 flights2.6%
- 2+ hours late15 flights1.8%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 846 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
A late pushback is often recovered here: of 223 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, 71 still arrived on time. In the other direction, 47 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 PHX to MCO
The latest arrival of the period was on 14 May 2026, 6 hours 8 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on three of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 14 May 2026 | 6 hours 8 minutes | Carrier |
| 16 March 2026 | 4 hours 34 minutes | Carrier |
| 21 May 2026 | 3 hours 14 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 30 July 2026 | 2 hours 58 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 23 April 2026 | 2 hours 50 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why Southwest runs late on this route
Carrier accounts for 47% of the 8,835 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 47%Carrier
- 33%Late-arriving aircraft
- 16%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 47%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 4,156 of the 8,835 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 8,835 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 92.9% on time here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.58%, 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
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.4% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
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 78.9% on time across 841 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. 857 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 PHX to MCO
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 857 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 76.5% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 846 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- PHX to MCO, every carrier
- Southwest on MCO to PHX, the return leg
- Frontier Airlines on PHX to MCO74.6%
- American Airlines on PHX to MCO71.7%
- Southwest Airlines network-wide record
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) delay statistics
- Orlando International (MCO) 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.