Route profile
HOU→MCO
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Houston to Orlando, 849 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 54% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,259 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
HOU → MCO arrives on time 78.7% of the time; the return trip, MCO → HOU, arrives on time 75.2% of the time, a 3.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
HOU → MCO spends 21.8 minutes on the ground on an 849-mile trip: 12.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at HOU and 9.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at MCO.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where HOU to MCO differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
HOU to MCO struggles most at 1 PM: 67.5% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 9.9 points behind the 77.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9.6 points.
HOU to MCO is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 73.7% arrive on time, 6.3 points ahead of the 67.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 5.1 points.
January is kinder to HOU to MCO than to routes of similar length: 85.0% on time against 78.7%, 6.3 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 5.9 points.
In March, HOU to MCO runs 4.7 points below routes of similar length, 72.6% on time to 77.3%. Against all other routes the gap is 5.3 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on HOU to MCO than on its routes of similar length: 79.1% on time here, 76.6% there, 2.5 points apart.
HOU to MCO against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 1 PM departures | 67.5% | routes of similar length | 77.4% | −9.9 pts | 203 here, 151,791 there |
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 73.7% | routes of similar length | 67.4% | +6.3 pts | 532 here, 164,479 there |
| Month: January | 85.0% | routes of similar length | 78.7% | +6.3 pts | 460 here, 191,085 there |
| Month: March | 72.6% | routes of similar length | 77.3% | −4.7 pts | 508 here, 216,650 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 79.1% | routes of similar length | 76.6% | +2.5 pts | 6,008 here, 716,248 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 849 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
Why HOU → MCO flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
HOU → MCO cancelled 80 of 6,259 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 78. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 51.2% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 153 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 80 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
41 cancellations, 51.2% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
26 cancellations, 32.5% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
13 cancellations, 16.3% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
80 coded cancellations were recorded on HOU → MCO; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
40 min late
against a median of 4 min early
Percentiles over 6,259 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MCO after arriving from HOU.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 39% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.6% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.7% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 1.28% of the time and diverts 0.27% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,162 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 40 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 6,259 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
HOU → MCO flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 91.9% of the time, against 67.0% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 24.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 93.3% on time from 738 flights
- 6 AM: 93.8% on time from 441 flights
- 7 AM: 90.3% on time from 522 flights
- 8 AM: 88.5% on time from 336 flights
- 9 AM: 87.3% on time from 152 flights
- 10 AM: 81.2% on time from 378 flights
- 11 AM: 87.1% on time from 336 flights
- 12 PM: 78.7% on time from 275 flights
- 1 PM: 67.5% on time from 212 flights
- 2 PM: 69.6% on time from 193 flights
- 3 PM: 68.5% on time from 331 flights
- 4 PM: 69.1% on time from 491 flights
- 5 PM: 62.7% on time from 351 flights
- 6 PM: 73.7% on time from 541 flights
- 7 PM: 69.2% on time from 388 flights
- 8 PM: 64.2% on time from 502 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why HOU → MCO runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for HOU → MCO. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on HOU → MCO, at 38.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 91.9% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 67.0%.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 6,098 | 79.1% | 1.20% | -4 min | 6.5% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 5.6 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 85.0%
- Feb: 83.6%
- Mar: 72.6%
- Apr: 83.5%
- May: 72.9%
- Jun: 70.8%
- Jul: 71.6%
- Aug: 77.4%
- Sep: 84.0%
- Oct: 83.1%
- Nov: 84.9%
- Dec: 80.0%
June is historically the weakest month and January the strongest, a spread of 14.2 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 77.3% from 178 flights
- August 2023: 83.3% from 154 flights
- September 2023: 74.1% from 143 flights
- October 2023: 82.2% from 188 flights
- November 2023: 80.1% from 191 flights
- December 2023: 83.6% from 196 flights
- January 2024: 79.3% from 176 flights
- February 2024: 88.2% from 162 flights
- March 2024: 78.1% from 177 flights
- April 2024: 83.4% from 169 flights
- May 2024: 66.9% from 172 flights
- June 2024: 67.0% from 184 flights
- July 2024: 71.4% from 193 flights
- August 2024: 77.0% from 152 flights
- September 2024: 88.6% from 134 flights
- October 2024: 88.1% from 173 flights
- November 2024: 92.2% from 180 flights
- December 2024: 74.9% from 173 flights
- January 2025: 89.1% from 143 flights
- February 2025: 82.6% from 139 flights
- March 2025: 80.9% from 166 flights
- April 2025: 86.9% from 153 flights
- May 2025: 74.7% from 155 flights
- June 2025: 73.7% from 173 flights
- July 2025: 66.1% from 181 flights
- August 2025: 71.7% from 145 flights
- September 2025: 89.9% from 138 flights
- October 2025: 79.4% from 175 flights
- November 2025: 82.7% from 187 flights
- December 2025: 81.1% from 190 flights
- January 2026: 87.9% from 149 flights
- February 2026: 79.4% from 143 flights
- March 2026: 59.9% from 183 flights
- April 2026: 80.7% from 181 flights
- May 2026: 76.9% from 183 flights
- June 2026: 71.8% from 180 flights
- July 2026: 71.9% from 200 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 77.4% against 81.0% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,259 HOU → MCO flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed