Route profile
MCO→IAD
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Orlando to Washington, 758 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 41% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,969 flights. How this is calculated
MCO → IAD arrives on time 79.8% of the time; the return trip, IAD → MCO, arrives on time 78.1% of the time.
MCO → IAD spends 27.7 minutes on the ground on a 758-mile trip: 19.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MCO and 7.8 minutes from touchdown to gate at IAD.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every airline on this route performs about the same, a narrower carrier gap than 95% of 2,692 comparable routes.
United Airlines (79.9% on time) and Frontier Airlines (78.9%) are close together here.
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.
What sets this route apart
Where MCO to IAD differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
MCO to IAD is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 11 AM: 90.3% arrive on time, 8.7 points ahead of the 81.6% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9.3 points.
MCO to IAD holds up on Tuesdays better than routes of similar length do: 86.1% on time to their 81.3%, a 4.8 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 4.5 points.
April is kinder to MCO to IAD than to routes of similar length: 87.3% on time against 79.9%, 7.4 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 7.4 points.
MCO to IAD against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 11 AM departures | 90.3% | routes of similar length | 81.6% | +8.7 pts | 175 here, 136,221 there |
| Weekday: Tuesday | 86.1% | routes of similar length | 81.3% | +4.8 pts | 775 here, 306,180 there |
| Month: April | 87.3% | routes of similar length | 79.9% | +7.4 pts | 577 here, 181,814 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 758 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 MCO → IAD flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
MCO → IAD cancelled 73 of 5,969 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 82. The reason filed most often was the airline, 50.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 161 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 73 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
37 cancellations, 50.7% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
23 cancellations, 31.5% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
13 cancellations, 17.8% 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.
73 coded cancellations were recorded on MCO → IAD; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
51 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 5,969 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IAD after arriving from MCO.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 33% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 20% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 8.9% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.7% | 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 1.22% of the time and diverts 0.20% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,884 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 51 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 5,969 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MCO → IAD flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 94.2% of the time, against 69.6% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 24.6 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 93.7% on time from 624 flights
- 9 AM: 90.7% on time from 899 flights
- 10 AM: 80.9% on time from 136 flights
- 11 AM: 90.3% on time from 177 flights
- 12 PM: 80.9% on time from 382 flights
- 1 PM: 78.6% on time from 550 flights
- 2 PM: 75.9% on time from 657 flights
- 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 73.2% on time from 1,145 flights
- 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 63.8% on time from 218 flights
- 7 PM: 71.0% on time from 940 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why MCO → IAD 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for MCO → IAD. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on MCO → IAD, at 47.7%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 94.2% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 69.6%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 5,464 | 79.9% | 1.13% | -7 min | 9.1% |
| Frontier Airlines | 505 | 78.9% | 2.18% | -9 min | 8.3% |
United Airlines flew 91.5% of the 5,969 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 2.18% of its flights here against 1.13% for United Airlines.
Carriers on this route performed within a couple of percentage points of each other.
Other ways to fly Orlando to Washington
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
MCO → IAD is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 79.8% on time, against 72.4% for MCO → DCA.
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
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 12.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 80.7%
- Feb: 82.6%
- Mar: 79.3%
- Apr: 87.3%
- May: 77.1%
- Jun: 75.2%
- Jul: 65.3%
- Aug: 73.3%
- Sep: 84.4%
- Oct: 87.0%
- Nov: 86.7%
- Dec: 82.6%
July is historically the weakest month and April the strongest, a spread of 22.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 50.8% from 123 flights
- August 2023: 74.8% from 124 flights
- September 2023: 74.6% from 120 flights
- October 2023: 89.3% from 123 flights
- November 2023: too few flights to score (111)
- December 2023: 87.3% from 126 flights
- January 2024: 77.2% from 141 flights
- February 2024: 84.9% from 139 flights
- March 2024: 73.5% from 155 flights
- April 2024: 87.2% from 150 flights
- May 2024: 76.0% from 147 flights
- June 2024: 72.3% from 120 flights
- July 2024: 68.6% from 124 flights
- August 2024: 66.7% from 124 flights
- September 2024: 85.8% from 120 flights
- October 2024: 93.1% from 124 flights
- November 2024: 90.1% from 163 flights
- December 2024: 79.6% from 164 flights
- January 2025: 82.1% from 191 flights
- February 2025: 81.7% from 187 flights
- March 2025: 79.0% from 217 flights
- April 2025: 83.4% from 218 flights
- May 2025: 72.0% from 207 flights
- June 2025: 69.7% from 197 flights
- July 2025: 71.9% from 176 flights
- August 2025: 76.8% from 178 flights
- September 2025: 90.1% from 171 flights
- October 2025: 81.4% from 177 flights
- November 2025: 82.8% from 171 flights
- December 2025: 82.0% from 172 flights
- January 2026: 81.6% from 186 flights
- February 2026: 81.8% from 170 flights
- March 2026: 84.3% from 197 flights
- April 2026: 91.5% from 212 flights
- May 2026: 83.2% from 197 flights
- June 2026: 83.5% from 171 flights
- July 2026: 66.7% from 176 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.3% against 79.2% in the 12 months before — improving by 3.1 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,969 MCO → IAD 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