Route profile
SEA→MCO
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Seattle to Orlando, 2,554 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 74% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,729 flights. How this is calculated
SEA → MCO arrives on time 80.5% of the time; the return trip, MCO → SEA, arrives on time 77.6% of the time, a 2.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SEA → MCO spends 34.0 minutes on the ground on a 2,554-mile trip: 21.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SEA and 12.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at MCO.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Unlike most, it barely matters what time you fly this route, a steadier spread than 97% of 4,023 comparable routes.
82.6% on time for 9 PM–5 AM departures, against 77.3% for 3–6 PM, a narrow gap either way.
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 4,023 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where SEA to MCO differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SEA to MCO struggles most at 10 PM: 74.7% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 7.3 points behind the 82.0% on routes of similar length at the same hour.
SEA to MCO is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 9 PM: 83.8% arrive on time, 5 points ahead of the 78.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 14.3 points.
SEA to MCO holds up on Tuesdays better than routes of similar length do: 86.4% on time to their 81.6%, a 4.8 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 4.8 points.
November is kinder to SEA to MCO than to routes of similar length: 88.9% on time against 83.2%, 5.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 5.5 points.
Alaska Airlines does better on SEA to MCO than on its routes of similar length: 79.7% on time here, 75.9% there, 3.8 points apart.
SEA to MCO against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 10 PM departures | 74.7% | routes of similar length | 82.0% | −7.3 pts | 166 here, 51,806 there |
| Hour: 9 PM departures | 83.8% | routes of similar length | 78.8% | +5.0 pts | 266 here, 52,955 there |
| Weekday: Tuesday | 86.4% | routes of similar length | 81.6% | +4.8 pts | 774 here, 124,871 there |
| Month: November | 88.9% | routes of similar length | 83.2% | +5.7 pts | 432 here, 69,689 there |
| Airline: Alaska Airlines | 79.7% | routes of similar length | 75.9% | +3.8 pts | 3,491 here, 157,139 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 2,554 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 SEA → MCO flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
SEA → MCO cancelled 80 of 5,729 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 72. The reason filed most often was the airline, 75.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 95 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 80 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.
60 cancellations, 75.0% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
19 cancellations, 23.8% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
1 cancellation, 1.3% 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. 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.
80 coded cancellations were recorded on SEA → MCO; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
30 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 5,729 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MCO after arriving from SEA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 39% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 10.0% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 3.9% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.3% | 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 1.40% of the time and diverts 0.63% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,613 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 30 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 5,729 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SEA → MCO flights departing 9 PM–5 AM arrived on time 82.6% of the time, against 77.3% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 5.3 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 83.6% on time from 150 flights
- 7 AM: 80.9% on time from 516 flights
- 8 AM: 79.7% on time from 1,375 flights
- 9 AM: 79.8% on time from 387 flights
- 10 AM: 77.5% on time from 294 flights
- 11 AM to 2 PM: too few flights to score
- 3 PM: 77.3% on time from 915 flights
- 4 PM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 83.8% on time from 268 flights
- 10 PM: 74.7% on time from 166 flights
- 11 PM: 83.2% on time from 1,648 flights
Why SEA → MCO runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
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 SEA → MCO. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines | 3,564 | 79.7% | 1.54% | -5 min | 4.0% |
| Delta Air Lines | 2,165 | 81.8% | 1.15% | -5 min | 4.1% |
Alaska Airlines flew 62.2% of the 5,729 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 2.1 percentage points more often than Alaska Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
DL448 (11:15 PM) arrived on time 81.6% of the time, 5.3 points more often than DL328 (8:45 AM) at 76.3%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 9.9 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 83.4%
- Feb: 84.7%
- Mar: 77.2%
- Apr: 81.3%
- May: 81.1%
- Jun: 76.3%
- Jul: 71.4%
- Aug: 76.4%
- Sep: 82.5%
- Oct: 84.3%
- Nov: 88.9%
- Dec: 82.2%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 17.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 83.6% from 154 flights
- August 2023: 81.0% from 155 flights
- September 2023: 86.6% from 150 flights
- October 2023: 90.9% from 154 flights
- November 2023: 92.4% from 158 flights
- December 2023: 86.9% from 183 flights
- January 2024: 82.2% from 154 flights
- February 2024: 86.7% from 150 flights
- March 2024: 76.8% from 182 flights
- April 2024: 84.0% from 164 flights
- May 2024: 78.4% from 155 flights
- June 2024: 74.5% from 150 flights
- July 2024: 70.1% from 155 flights
- August 2024: 75.7% from 155 flights
- September 2024: 80.1% from 149 flights
- October 2024: 78.1% from 148 flights
- November 2024: 85.6% from 139 flights
- December 2024: 77.0% from 152 flights
- January 2025: 81.3% from 144 flights
- February 2025: 74.0% from 146 flights
- March 2025: 80.3% from 184 flights
- April 2025: 78.0% from 169 flights
- May 2025: 79.3% from 155 flights
- June 2025: 69.8% from 150 flights
- July 2025: 60.7% from 154 flights
- August 2025: 72.5% from 154 flights
- September 2025: 80.7% from 145 flights
- October 2025: 83.2% from 151 flights
- November 2025: 88.2% from 140 flights
- December 2025: 81.8% from 150 flights
- January 2026: 86.5% from 149 flights
- February 2026: 92.9% from 157 flights
- March 2026: 74.1% from 165 flights
- April 2026: 82.1% from 151 flights
- May 2026: 85.5% from 154 flights
- June 2026: 84.6% from 150 flights
- July 2026: 70.9% from 154 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 81.8% against 76.6% in the 12 months before — improving by 5.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,729 SEA → 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