MCO → CLT Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · MCONo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:53 UTC

Orlando airport profile →

Destination · CLTNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:52 UTC

Charlotte airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

57/ 100Fair

Better than 29% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 15,950 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

77.2%

12,094 of 15,670

Cancellation rate

1.62%

259 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-7 min

Average 10.6 min

Severe delays

9.3%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

81 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

15,950

3 carriers

MCO → CLT arrives on time 77.2% of the time; the return trip, CLT → MCO, arrives on time 71.2% of the time, a 6.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.

MCO → CLT spends 31.3 minutes on the ground on a 468-mile trip: 19.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MCO and 11.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at CLT.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

Why MCO → CLT flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

MCO → CLT cancelled 259 of 15,950 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 62. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 78.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 79 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Weather78.0%

Airline14.7%

Air traffic7.3%

Security0.0%

Of 259 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

Extreme weather1 in 79

Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.

202 cancellations, 78.0% of the total.

The airline1 in 420

Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.

38 cancellations, 14.7% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 839

Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.

19 cancellations, 7.3% of the total.

Security—

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.

259 coded cancellations were recorded on MCO → CLT; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

55 min late

against a median of 7 min early

Arrived an hour or more late9.3%

Typical delay when late81 min

Cancelled1.62%

Landed somewhere else0.13%

MCO → CLT has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 7 min early, but the worst tenth are 62 minutes worse than that. If the trip has something unmissable at the end of it, the median is the wrong number to plan against.

Percentiles over 15,950 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at CLT after arriving from MCO.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, MCO → CLT arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	37%	Likely to miss
45 min	22%	High risk
60 min	16%	High risk
90 min	9.1%	Some risk
120 min	5.9%	Some 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 1.62% of the time and diverts 0.13% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 15,670 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 55 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 15,950 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

MCO → CLT flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.3% of the time, against 61.2% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 29.1 percentage points.

By day and hour

On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the departure airport (MCO).

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 10.9 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 3.2 points.

On-time arrival rate for MCO to CLT by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
5 AM–6 AM
6 AM–7 AM
7 AM–8 AM
8 AM–9 AM
9 AM–10 AM
10 AM–11 AM
11 AM–12 PM
12 PM–1 PM
1 PM–2 PM
2 PM–3 PM
3 PM–4 PM
4 PM–5 PM
5 PM–6 PM
6 PM–7 PM
7 PM–8 PM

On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time

40–49
50–59
60–69
70–79
80–89
90–99

Fewer than 120 flights, not scored

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · On time is arrival within 15 minutes of schedule. Cells round to whole percentages; the table shows one decimal.

No slot is named best or worst: too few reach 500 flights. Departures after 8 PM (685 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.

View as tableHide table

On-time arrival rate (%) with flights beneath, by scheduled departure hour and weekday for MCO to CLT. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
5 AM–6 AM	93.0% on time175 flights	96 flights, too few to score	119 flights, too few to score	96.2% on time187 flights	94.8% on time179 flights	95.9% on time150 flights	92.0% on time190 flights
6 AM–7 AM	87.0% on time221 flights	91.9% on time185 flights	93.2% on time195 flights	92.9% on time227 flights	94.4% on time236 flights	88.5% on time193 flights	91.6% on time230 flights
7 AM–8 AM	76 flights, too few to score	60 flights, too few to score	51 flights, too few to score	50 flights, too few to score	68 flights, too few to score	62 flights, too few to score	60 flights, too few to score
8 AM–9 AM	82.4% on time191 flights	89.3% on time189 flights	90.2% on time187 flights	86.2% on time197 flights	86.0% on time201 flights	88.3% on time174 flights	85.6% on time197 flights
9 AM–10 AM	77.8% on time213 flights	82.8% on time194 flights	85.9% on time167 flights	85.5% on time204 flights	84.0% on time217 flights	82.9% on time200 flights	80.5% on time207 flights
10 AM–11 AM	84.1% on time134 flights	82.4% on time132 flights	92.6% on time124 flights	84.4% on time138 flights	82.8% on time124 flights	81.8% on time138 flights	83.1% on time148 flights
11 AM–12 PM	79.0% on time159 flights	83.0% on time153 flights	81.0% on time155 flights	73.5% on time153 flights	70.2% on time163 flights	73.5% on time152 flights	72.6% on time148 flights
12 PM–1 PM	82.9% on time121 flights	103 flights, too few to score	102 flights, too few to score	96 flights, too few to score	108 flights, too few to score	104 flights, too few to score	104 flights, too few to score
1 PM–2 PM	76.1% on time183 flights	84.9% on time173 flights	83.4% on time180 flights	83.3% on time192 flights	77.4% on time179 flights	76.1% on time179 flights	70.0% on time183 flights
2 PM–3 PM	95 flights, too few to score	102 flights, too few to score	100 flights, too few to score	97 flights, too few to score	107 flights, too few to score	90 flights, too few to score	96 flights, too few to score
3 PM–4 PM	62.1% on time186 flights	78.8% on time148 flights	71.0% on time165 flights	69.3% on time182 flights	62.6% on time176 flights	65.0% on time183 flights	59.3% on time186 flights
4 PM–5 PM	65.3% on time125 flights	113 flights, too few to score	115 flights, too few to score	112 flights, too few to score	73.6% on time127 flights	90 flights, too few to score	106 flights, too few to score
5 PM–6 PM	59.9% on time161 flights	65.5% on time144 flights	69.2% on time139 flights	59.2% on time155 flights	64.7% on time158 flights	61.5% on time148 flights	50.3% on time166 flights
6 PM–7 PM	65.4% on time138 flights	107 flights, too few to score	64.8% on time126 flights	57.2% on time155 flights	61.7% on time132 flights	54.2% on time123 flights	49.1% on time166 flights
7 PM–8 PM	63.7% on time127 flights	75 flights, too few to score	79 flights, too few to score	59.3% on time121 flights	60.3% on time128 flights	104 flights, too few to score	60.7% on time136 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM90.3%

9 AM–12 PM81.1%

12–3 PM77.4%

3–6 PM66.0%

6–9 PM61.2%

9 PM–5 AM63.9%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why MCO → CLT runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Late-arriving aircraft49.3%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

The airline23.1%

crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control

Air traffic control17.4%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Weather9.9%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security0.3%

screening or terminal security incidents

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for MCO → CLT. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on MCO → CLT, at 49.3%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.3% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 61.2%.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

Bad weather raises cancellations by a similar amount at both ends of MCO to CLT: 3.2 times the normal rate at MCO and 4.6 times at CLT. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: MCO 4.0% against 1.3%, CLT 5.7% against 1.2%. Flights that did leave MCO in bad weather arrived on time 54.1% of the time, against 76.3% in normal hours.

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Departures from MCO and CLT in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	MCO	CLT
Cancelled in bad weather	4.0%	5.7%
Cancelled in normal hours	1.3%	1.2%
Arrived on time, bad weather	54.1%	63.5%
Arrived on time, normal hours	76.3%	75.9%
Departures in bad weather	33,297	55,311

American Airlines (4.6% cancelled against 3.9% for the other carriers at MCO), Frontier Airlines (4.7% cancelled against 3.9% for the other carriers at MCO) and Spirit Airlines (5.7% cancelled against 3.9% for the other carriers at MCO) cancelled more departures from MCO in bad weather than the other carriers there did in the same months. None of the route’s other carriers was clearly better.

This route’s airlines in bad weather at MCO

All departures from MCO

Cancellation rates in bad weather at MCO for the airlines that fly MCO to CLT, against the other carriers at MCO in the same months
Airline	Bad-weather departures	Cancelled	Other carriers
American Airlines	4,024	4.6%above the others	3.9%
Frontier Airlines	3,840	4.7%above the others	3.9%
Spirit Airlines	4,014	5.7%above the others	3.9%

These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from MCO and CLT, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from MCO on every route.

Weather source and limits. In full: MCO (airlines), CLT, What Weather Costs Each Airport, Who Cancels More When the Weather Turns, Airports That Change Places When Weather Turns.

Airlines on this route

Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.

Airlines on this route
Carrier	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Severe
American Airlines	12,174	78.2%	1.57%	-7 min	9.0%
Spirit Airlines	1,888	71.2%	2.17%	-2 min	11.5%
Frontier Airlines	1,888	76.4%	1.43%	-7 min	8.7%

American Airlines flew 76.3% of the 15,950 flights listed.

American Airlines arrived on time 7.0 percentage points more often than Spirit Airlines on this route.

Flights on this route

Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.

Flights on this route
Flight	Scheduled	Operations	On time
AA1896 American Airlines	5:00 AM	979	93.9%
AA461 American Airlines	6:15 AM	954	89.5%

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon75.8%

Tue82.4%

Wed80.9%

Thu78.1%

Fri77.0%

Sat75.0%

Sun72.1%

Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 10.3 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 17.2 percentage points.

Reliability over time

July 2023 – July 2026

24

25

26

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 78.4% against 80.8% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.4 percentage points.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 15,950 MCO → CLT 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

Analysis last recomputed September 26, 2026

MCO airport CLT airport Return direction CLT → MCO

MCO→CLT

Right now

Route reliability

Why MCO → CLT flights are cancelled

Share of cancellations

What each reason means

When it goes wrong

Will your connection be tight enough?

Best time to fly

By day and hour

By departure window

By departure hour

Why MCO → CLT runs late

How this route holds up in bad weather

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

This route’s airlines in bad weather at MCO

Airlines on this route

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology