Orlando is a medium-sized US city with an out-sized airport. With just over 2.5 million residents in its metropolitan area, it ranks 23rd in the US, between Charlotte and San Antonio. However, Orlando International Airport
(MCO) served 57.7 million passengers in 2023, making it the busiest airport in Florida, the 7th busiest airport in the US, and well within the top 20 busiest airports worldwide. To put it in context, MCO has a similar level of annual passenger traffic as Shanghai (PVG: 54.5 million), Seoul (ICN: 56.2 million), and Singapore (SIN: 58.9 million).
Photo: Orlando International Airport
The reason for this high traffic is that Orlando is one of the most-visited cities in the world. It welcomes more than double its population to the city each year, drawn to the Walt Disney World and Universal Studios resorts and scores of other local leisure destinations. It is also the leading city in the US for conferences and conventions and home to one of the largest public universities in the country.
Photo: Orlando Tourism
This adds to a lot of travel to and from MCO, but with over 40 airlines serving the airport this year, which has the largest market share? We examined 2024 flight data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, to look closely at the top 7 airlines at MCO, which jointly account for nearly 90% of the airport traffic.
7
United Airlines
7% market share
United Airlines
has been flying to MCO for nearly 50 years but is the smallest of the legacy US carriers, with 28,000 flights to MCO in 2024, representing a 7% market share. It flies to eight destinations from MCO, seven of which are its US hubs, plus ex-hub Cleveland (CLE), which has a daily flight to MCO. Its busiest routes are from Newark (EWR), which has eight daily flights to MCO using a mix of Boeing 737-900s, MAX 8s, and 757-200s, followed by Houston (IAH) and Chicago (ORD), which have 5-6 daily flights to MCO.
Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock
6
American Airlines
9% market share
American Airlines
has a 9% share of the MCO market, with 36,000 flights in 2024, representing more than 6.5 million annual seats. It flies to eight destinations across the US, all of which are its hubs. Charlotte (CLT) has the highest traffic, with 12 daily flights utilizing the Airbus A321 aircraft, with Dallas (DFW, 8 daily flights) and Miami (MIA, 8 daily flights) being its next most popular destinations.
Notably, American Airlines is terminating its route to Austin (AUS) this month, where it has been on the losing end of an intense competitive battle with Spirit, Southwest, and Delta.
Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying
5
Frontier Airlines
10% market share
Frontier Airlines
has an operating base at MCO and, with 37,000 annual flights, is the fifth largest carrier at the airport, with a 10% market share. Its highest-traffic destinations are Atlanta (ATL) and Philadelphia (PHL), which each have 3-4 daily flights to MCO but face fierce competition from Delta and American, respectively.
Frontier has also made notable reductions to its service at MCO over the past year. It has removed a total of 23 daily flights on average, with the most notable reductions being flights to Caribean destinations, where services to Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Cancun are drastically reduced or cut entirely.
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying
4
JetBlue
11% market share
JetBlue
has an 11% share of the MCO market, with just over 40,000 flights in 2024. Its most significant route to MCO is from Boston (BOS), which offers six daily flights. It is also the largest carrier connecting the New York area to Orlando, flying from JFK (5 daily flights), LGA (4 daily flights), and EWR (3 daily flights). It is also the largest of the four carriers that provide a total of 16 daily flights to San Juan (SJU) in Puerto Rico, where it provides a six-times-daily service with its Airbus A320 fleet.
Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock
3
Delta Air Lines
12% market share
Delta Air Lines
will have over 43,000 flights to MCO this year, giving it a 12% market share. It flies to 16 destinations from MCO, with its network totally dominated by the very high capacity ATL-MCO route, where it offers more than 100 flights a week using its aging but characterful Boeing 757-200 and -300 fleet.
This makes Orlando the number-one destination from the world’s busiest airport, with Southwest, Frontier, and Spirit also offering multiple daily flights on the 400-mile route.
Photo: Andrew Mauro | Shutterstock
Delta is also notable as the only US carrier offering transatlantic flights from MCO. It has two seasonal routes targeted at European travelers seeking sunny winter destinations:
- London (LHR): Starting October 26th, Delta will launch four weekly flights to LHR, becoming Delta’s eighth US city to London. This will complement the twice-daily service already offered by its partner, Virgin Atlantic, which utilizes an A330-300 and A350-1000 on the route. Interestingly, the route will utilize an Airbus A330-900, freed up after KLM took over the Amsterdam (AMS)-Portland (PDX) route that Delta had flown until last month.
- Amsterdam (AMS): Delta will resume its seasonal route to Amsterdam on October 26th, with daily MCO-AMS flights using an Airbus A330-300 to its busiest European airport and the hub of long-time partner KLM.
Photo: Ian Dewar Photography | Shutterstock
2
Spirit Airlines
14% market share
Spirit Airlines
has been flying from MCO for over three decades and has a 14% share of the MCO market, with 51,000 annual flights. The airline serves more than 50 different cities from MCO, including 11 international destinations such as Bogota and Cartagena in Columbia, Santa Domingo, Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, and San Jose in Costa Rica.
Photo: Spirit Airlines
MCO is such a large and vital part of the Spirit network that it was here that it chose to implement its new biometric photo-matching bag drop technology, which allows passengers to check their bags directly without consulting an agent. This adds greater efficiency and significantly reduces lines at check-in, as Mike Byrom, Spirit Airlines’ Vice President of Airports, explains:
“Testing data has shown that the new procedure decreases processing time to just 70 seconds per passenger. As we’ve become the largest ultra-low-fare carrier at MCO, adding this convenient, self-service option is a significant investment in convenience for our guests.”
Photo: Spirit Airlines
1
Southwest Airlines
25% market share
Southwest Airlines
is the undisputed market leader at MCO, with a 25% market share and over 94,000 annual flights—more than its two closest competitors combined. With an average of 260 daily flights, Southwest also serves the most destinations from MCO, flying to more than 60 different destinations, including eight international routes to destinations in and around the Caribbean.
The airline’s largest routes from MCO are:
- Baltimore (BWI): 10 daily flights
- Dallas Love Field (DAL): 8 daily flights
- Chicago Midway (MDW): 7 daily flights
- Houston Hobby (HOU): 6 daily flights
- Nashville (BNA): 6 daily flights
Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock
Not satisfied with its dominance, Southwest continues to expand at MCO. This month, it is adding a new daily flight to Aruba in the Netherlands Antilles, new twice-daily flights to Buffalo and Raleigh/Durham, and significantly expanding its existing service to Nashville, New Orleans, Indianapolis, and Dallas/Love with two additional daily flights for each.
Other notable airlines to Orlando
While these airlines are the largest at MCO and represent 9 out of 10 flights at the airport, some other notable airlines are worthy of mention. These include:
- Breeze Airways: The low-cost carrier is only three years old, but it already serves 25 destinations from MCO, most of them with 2–4 flights a week. In October, it plans to add eight new destinations, including Bangor, Evansville, Hartford, and Lansing.
- Air Canada: The Canadian flag carrier already offers three-times-daily flights to Toronto and twice-daily flights to Montreal but will add flights to Ottowa, Halifax, and Quebec City in October, as the Canadian winter makes Florida a very attractive short-haul destination.
- Discover Airlines: The Lufthansa-owned leisure carrier connects MCO to Frankfurt (FRA) with 10 weekly flights, utilizing its Airbus A330-200 and -300 fleet. Munich will be added as a new destination for MCO starting in March of next year, with three flights a week.
- Flair Airlines: The Canadian ultra-low-cost carrier is new to MCO, but this month, winter season flights to Kitchener-Waterloo, London-Ontario, Saint John, and Toronto will be added.
- Virgin Atlantic: The British carrier provides the most transatlantic flights to MCO, with twice-daily service from London (LHR) (see above), twice-daily A350-1000 and A330-300