Route profile
IND→MCO
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Indianapolis to Orlando, 829 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 51% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,424 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
IND → MCO arrives on time 80.5% of the time; the return trip, MCO → IND, arrives on time 75.5% of the time, a 5.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
IND → MCO spends 22.4 minutes on the ground on an 829-mile trip: 12.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IND and 9.9 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 IND to MCO differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IND to MCO is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 4 PM: 76.0% arrive on time, 7.2 points ahead of the 68.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 5.3 points.
IND to MCO holds up on Wednesdays better than routes of similar length do: 85.3% on time to their 80.3%, a 5 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 4.5 points.
July is kinder to IND to MCO than to routes of similar length: 74.1% on time against 68.1%, 6 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 4.4 points.
Spirit Airlines does better on IND to MCO than on its routes of similar length: 82.8% on time here, 74.5% there, 8.3 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 7.6 points.
IND to MCO against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 76.0% | routes of similar length | 68.8% | +7.2 pts | 325 here, 134,510 there |
| Weekday: Wednesday | 85.3% | routes of similar length | 80.3% | +5.0 pts | 899 here, 333,755 there |
| Month: July | 74.1% | routes of similar length | 68.1% | +6.0 pts | 798 here, 266,006 there |
| Airline: Spirit Airlines | 82.8% | routes of similar length | 74.5% | +8.3 pts | 1,544 here, 96,927 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 829 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 IND → MCO flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
IND → MCO cancelled 96 of 7,424 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 77. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 57.3% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 135 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 96 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.
55 cancellations, 57.3% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
26 cancellations, 27.1% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
15 cancellations, 15.6% 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. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
96 coded cancellations were recorded on IND → MCO; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
45 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 7,424 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MCO after arriving from IND.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 34% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 19% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.5% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.5% | 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 1.29% of the time and diverts 0.35% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,302 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 45 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,424 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
IND → MCO flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 92.4% of the time, against 67.4% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 25.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 93.2% on time from 1,112 flights
- 6 AM: 92.4% on time from 268 flights
- 7 AM: 92.7% on time from 290 flights
- 8 AM: 87.9% on time from 190 flights
- 9 AM: 87.5% on time from 599 flights
- 10 AM: 89.2% on time from 545 flights
- 11 AM: 82.7% on time from 267 flights
- 12 PM: 85.0% on time from 455 flights
- 1 PM: 79.6% on time from 367 flights
- 2 PM: 78.8% on time from 286 flights
- 3 PM: 76.6% on time from 351 flights
- 4 PM: 76.0% on time from 327 flights
- 5 PM: 67.2% on time from 415 flights
- 6 PM: 63.6% on time from 477 flights
- 7 PM: 70.6% on time from 482 flights
- 8 PM: 69.2% on time from 457 flights
- 9 PM: 67.1% on time from 429 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why IND → MCO runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s 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 IND → MCO. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on IND → MCO, at 51.2%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 92.4% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 67.4%.
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 | 4,855 | 81.3% | 0.97% | -6 min | 7.0% |
| Spirit Airlines | 1,571 | 82.8% | 1.53% | -12 min | 6.9% |
| Frontier Airlines | 968 | 72.2% | 2.58% | -10 min | 11.9% |
Southwest Airlines flew 65.7% of the 7,394 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 2.58% of its flights here against 0.97% for Southwest Airlines.
Spirit Airlines arrived on time 10.6 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 9.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 82.2%
- Feb: 85.0%
- Mar: 75.6%
- Apr: 85.3%
- May: 79.0%
- Jun: 76.7%
- Jul: 74.1%
- Aug: 77.1%
- Sep: 83.7%
- Oct: 84.3%
- Nov: 87.5%
- Dec: 78.9%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 13.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 67.4% from 220 flights
- August 2023: 77.2% from 170 flights
- September 2023: 81.6% from 149 flights
- October 2023: 85.4% from 215 flights
- November 2023: 84.5% from 194 flights
- December 2023: 81.1% from 191 flights
- January 2024: 74.2% from 190 flights
- February 2024: 84.3% from 197 flights
- March 2024: 73.2% from 281 flights
- April 2024: 85.0% from 230 flights
- May 2024: 77.7% from 217 flights
- June 2024: 78.6% from 213 flights
- July 2024: 71.6% from 196 flights
- August 2024: 81.1% from 147 flights
- September 2024: 85.5% from 132 flights
- October 2024: 88.8% from 224 flights
- November 2024: 93.2% from 192 flights
- December 2024: 81.3% from 199 flights
- January 2025: 87.9% from 176 flights
- February 2025: 84.0% from 172 flights
- March 2025: 82.9% from 267 flights
- April 2025: 88.5% from 219 flights
- May 2025: 79.1% from 216 flights
- June 2025: 76.3% from 198 flights
- July 2025: 81.8% from 184 flights
- August 2025: 72.9% from 142 flights
- September 2025: 84.1% from 151 flights
- October 2025: 79.6% from 248 flights
- November 2025: 84.6% from 198 flights
- December 2025: 74.6% from 214 flights
- January 2026: 84.5% from 214 flights
- February 2026: 86.5% from 210 flights
- March 2026: 71.0% from 273 flights
- April 2026: 82.3% from 217 flights
- May 2026: 80.5% from 170 flights
- June 2026: 75.0% from 187 flights
- July 2026: 76.4% from 211 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 79.2% against 84.2% in the 12 months before — declining by 5.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,424 IND → 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