Route profile
MCO→LAX
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Orlando to Los Angeles, 2,218 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 53% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 9,916 flights. How this is calculated
MCO → LAX arrives on time 79.3% of the time; the return trip, LAX → MCO, arrives on time 79.1% of the time.
MCO → LAX spends 31.1 minutes on the ground on a 2,218-mile trip: 19.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MCO and 11.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at LAX.
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 96% of 2,692 comparable routes.
United Airlines arrived on time 85.0% of the time, against 63.6% for JetBlue, 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.
What sets this route apart
Where MCO to LAX differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
MCO to LAX struggles most at 8 PM: 59.9% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 9.5 points behind the 69.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.5 points.
MCO to LAX is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 9 AM: 90.4% arrive on time, 9.1 points ahead of the 81.3% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.2 points.
April is kinder to MCO to LAX than to routes of similar length: 87.3% on time against 81.5%, 5.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 7.4 points.
In August, MCO to LAX runs 5.3 points below routes of similar length, 71.9% on time to 77.2%. Against all other routes the gap is 4.6 points.
American Airlines’ flights on MCO to LAX arrive on time 72.4% of the time, 6.3 points below the 78.7% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 2.7 points.
MCO to LAX against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 8 PM departures | 59.9% | routes of similar length | 69.4% | −9.5 pts | 304 here, 30,906 there |
| Hour: 9 AM departures | 90.4% | routes of similar length | 81.3% | +9.1 pts | 761 here, 76,271 there |
| Month: April | 87.3% | routes of similar length | 81.5% | +5.8 pts | 822 here, 87,363 there |
| Month: August | 71.9% | routes of similar length | 77.2% | −5.3 pts | 835 here, 95,137 there |
| Airline: American Airlines | 72.4% | routes of similar length | 78.7% | −6.3 pts | 2,198 here, 236,187 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 2,218 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 → LAX flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
MCO → LAX cancelled 75 of 9,916 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 132. The reason filed most often was the airline, 56.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 236 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 75 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.
42 cancellations, 56.0% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
23 cancellations, 30.7% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
10 cancellations, 13.3% 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. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
75 coded cancellations were recorded on MCO → LAX; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
46 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 9,916 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at LAX after arriving from MCO.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 36% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 20% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.7% | 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 0.76% of the time and diverts 0.18% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 9,823 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 46 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 9,916 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MCO → LAX flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 88.8% of the time, against 66.6% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 22.2 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 88.8% on time from 1,229 flights
- 7 AM: 89.5% on time from 1,569 flights
- 8 AM: 84.6% on time from 544 flights
- 9 AM: 90.4% on time from 767 flights
- 10 AM: 87.4% on time from 755 flights
- 11 AM to 2 PM: too few flights to score
- 3 PM: 76.8% on time from 356 flights
- 4 PM: 75.6% on time from 995 flights
- 5 PM: 68.9% on time from 604 flights
- 6 PM: 60.7% on time from 646 flights
- 7 PM: 69.7% on time from 1,859 flights
- 8 PM: 59.9% on time from 307 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why MCO → LAX 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 → LAX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
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 | 4,142 | 83.6% | 0.94% | -9 min | 6.1% |
| United Airlines | 2,353 | 85.0% | 0.89% | -8 min | 4.5% |
| American Airlines | 2,211 | 72.4% | 0.41% | -4 min | 11.7% |
| JetBlue | 432 | 63.6% | 0.23% | -3 min | 18.3% |
| Southwest Airlines | 361 | 65.3% | 0.28% | 6 min | 7.2% |
| Frontier Airlines | 350 | 77.5% | 0.57% | -5 min | 6.9% |
Delta Air Lines flew 42.1% of the 9,849 flights listed.
United Airlines arrived on time 21.4 percentage points more often than JetBlue 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
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 8.4 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 80.2%
- Feb: 82.4%
- Mar: 76.8%
- Apr: 87.3%
- May: 78.6%
- Jun: 76.8%
- Jul: 66.9%
- Aug: 71.9%
- Sep: 82.1%
- Oct: 87.0%
- Nov: 85.1%
- Dec: 83.7%
July is historically the weakest month and April the strongest, a spread of 20.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 60.0% from 307 flights
- August 2023: 69.7% from 308 flights
- September 2023: 82.2% from 255 flights
- October 2023: 90.7% from 259 flights
- November 2023: 84.0% from 250 flights
- December 2023: 83.7% from 264 flights
- January 2024: 82.5% from 261 flights
- February 2024: 80.4% from 240 flights
- March 2024: 72.7% from 266 flights
- April 2024: 88.0% from 251 flights
- May 2024: 76.3% from 263 flights
- June 2024: 80.0% from 261 flights
- July 2024: 64.2% from 266 flights
- August 2024: 78.8% from 246 flights
- September 2024: 79.5% from 220 flights
- October 2024: 92.1% from 232 flights
- November 2024: 87.4% from 222 flights
- December 2024: 80.1% from 231 flights
- January 2025: 73.8% from 229 flights
- February 2025: 84.5% from 208 flights
- March 2025: 74.1% from 266 flights
- April 2025: 90.2% from 254 flights
- May 2025: 76.6% from 269 flights
- June 2025: 70.7% from 260 flights
- July 2025: 65.7% from 272 flights
- August 2025: 68.4% from 289 flights
- September 2025: 84.3% from 255 flights
- October 2025: 79.7% from 281 flights
- November 2025: 84.3% from 268 flights
- December 2025: 86.5% from 309 flights
- January 2026: 83.2% from 303 flights
- February 2026: 82.5% from 269 flights
- March 2026: 82.8% from 309 flights
- April 2026: 84.5% from 321 flights
- May 2026: 82.3% from 317 flights
- June 2026: 79.5% from 296 flights
- July 2026: 76.0% from 339 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 81.1% against 79.1% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 9,916 MCO → LAX 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