Route profile
MCO→DTW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Orlando to Detroit, 957 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 26% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 11,802 flights. How this is calculated
MCO → DTW arrives on time 74.5% of the time; the return trip, DTW → MCO, arrives on time 77.5% of the time, a 2.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
MCO → DTW spends 29.6 minutes on the ground on a 957-mile trip: 19.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MCO and 10.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at DTW.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
The airline matters unusually much on this route, a wider carrier-to-carrier gap than 95% of 2,692 comparable routes.
Frontier Airlines arrived on time 80.0% of the time, against 59.0% for Southwest Airlines, flying the exact same route.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 2,692 in the comparison.
Why MCO → DTW flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
MCO → DTW cancelled 131 of 11,802 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 90. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 54.2% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 166 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 131 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.
71 cancellations, 54.2% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
54 cancellations, 41.2% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
6 cancellations, 4.6% 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.
131 coded cancellations were recorded on MCO → DTW; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
59 min late
against a median of 3 min early
MCO → DTW has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 3 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 11,802 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DTW after arriving from MCO.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 43% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 25% | High risk |
| 60 min | 17% | High risk |
| 90 min | 9.9% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.1% | 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 1.11% of the time and diverts 0.08% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 11,661 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 59 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 11,802 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MCO → DTW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.6% of the time, against 60.6% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 30.0 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 660 flights
- 6 AM: 91.0% on time from 1,454 flights
- 7 AM: 87.5% on time from 165 flights
- 8 AM: 89.1% on time from 1,197 flights
- 9 AM: 86.5% on time from 346 flights
- 10 AM: 85.4% on time from 144 flights
- 11 AM: 79.1% on time from 853 flights
- 12 PM: 70.8% on time from 732 flights
- 1 PM: 73.4% on time from 329 flights
- 2 PM: 72.6% on time from 1,365 flights
- 3 PM: 58.2% on time from 392 flights
- 4 PM: 59.4% on time from 590 flights
- 5 PM: 62.7% on time from 956 flights
- 6 PM: 61.9% on time from 840 flights
- 7 PM: 58.1% on time from 738 flights
- 8 PM: 61.9% on time from 669 flights
- 9 PM: 72.0% on time from 303 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why MCO → DTW runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
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 MCO → DTW. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
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 DTW: 3.2 times the normal rate at MCO and 2.3 times at DTW. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: MCO 4.0% against 1.3%, DTW 2.5% against 1.1%. 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 | DTW |
|---|---|---|
| Cancelled in bad weather | 4.0% | 2.5% |
| Cancelled in normal hours | 1.3% | 1.1% |
| Arrived on time, bad weather | 54.1% | 66.5% |
| Arrived on time, normal hours | 76.3% | 81.6% |
| Departures in bad weather | 33,297 | 53,809 |
Of the carriers on this route, Southwest Airlines (3.3% cancelled against 4.4% for the other carriers at MCO) cancelled the fewest departures from MCO in bad weather and Spirit Airlines (5.7% cancelled against 3.9% for the other carriers at MCO) the most.
This route’s airlines in bad weather at MCO
All departures from MCO| Airline | Bad-weather departures | Cancelled | Other carriers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 9,331 | 3.3%below the others | 4.4% |
| Delta Air Lines | 4,556 | 3.3%below the others | 4.3% |
| 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 DTW, 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), DTW, 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.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 6,447 | 74.7% | 0.92% | -2 min | 10.4% |
| Spirit Airlines | 3,694 | 73.3% | 1.25% | -3 min | 10.2% |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,408 | 80.0% | 1.63% | -9 min | 7.4% |
| Southwest Airlines | 253 | 59.0% | 1.19% | 10 min | 10.8% |
Delta Air Lines flew 54.6% of the 11,802 flights listed.
Frontier Airlines arrived on time 21.0 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 12.9 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 70.0%
- Feb: 76.3%
- Mar: 66.9%
- Apr: 79.5%
- May: 76.1%
- Jun: 76.1%
- Jul: 66.9%
- Aug: 69.4%
- Sep: 84.1%
- Oct: 81.9%
- Nov: 81.7%
- Dec: 71.8%
July is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 17.2 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 57.9% from 332 flights
- August 2023: 60.7% from 342 flights
- September 2023: 78.9% from 294 flights
- October 2023: 81.7% from 341 flights
- November 2023: 78.9% from 350 flights
- December 2023: 80.0% from 370 flights
- January 2024: 69.1% from 357 flights
- February 2024: 79.4% from 364 flights
- March 2024: 63.9% from 406 flights
- April 2024: 81.1% from 349 flights
- May 2024: 73.4% from 330 flights
- June 2024: 74.1% from 301 flights
- July 2024: 69.7% from 279 flights
- August 2024: 72.2% from 305 flights
- September 2024: 86.0% from 229 flights
- October 2024: 89.2% from 269 flights
- November 2024: 86.5% from 288 flights
- December 2024: 77.3% from 321 flights
- January 2025: 71.9% from 308 flights
- February 2025: 77.7% from 338 flights
- March 2025: 74.2% from 428 flights
- April 2025: 81.9% from 349 flights
- May 2025: 75.4% from 305 flights
- June 2025: 73.7% from 303 flights
- July 2025: 71.6% from 306 flights
- August 2025: 76.7% from 292 flights
- September 2025: 88.3% from 249 flights
- October 2025: 76.6% from 320 flights
- November 2025: 80.3% from 292 flights
- December 2025: 57.7% from 343 flights
- January 2026: 69.2% from 331 flights
- February 2026: 71.6% from 353 flights
- March 2026: 62.2% from 413 flights
- April 2026: 75.2% from 341 flights
- May 2026: 81.2% from 224 flights
- June 2026: 82.5% from 212 flights
- July 2026: 69.7% from 268 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 73.1% against 77.7% in the 12 months before — declining by 4.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 11,802 MCO → DTW 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