Carrier performance at one airport

AS→HNL

Alaska Airlines at Daniel K. Inouye International

Departures: 17,970
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Routes: 20
Rank here: #6 of 6

Alaska Airlines at Honolulu lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in four arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by roughly 45 minutes on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 17,970 flights, of which Southwest Airlines flew 12,339 at 90.4% on time.

Measured against the airport rather than the country, Alaska Airlines runs 6 points behind the 82.9% weighted average across all carriers at HNL. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.

On time

76.7%

17,682 completed departures

Avg delay

46 min

Across delayed flights only

Cancelled

1.51%

At HNL, this carrier only

Rank here

Of 6 carriers clearing the floor at HNL

These figures cover 18,000 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. On-time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the same threshold the Department of Transportation uses in its own reports. Cancelled and diverted flights are excluded from the on-time rate and counted separately, which is why the cancellation column matters on its own.

Against the competition

Every carrier at HNL, ranked

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Southwest Airlines arrives on time 90.4% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 76.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 17,970 flights means less than a ten-point one.

On-time performance of all carriers departing HNL
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	12,339	90.4%	44 min	0.59%	A+
Delta Air Lines	3,711	86.6%	72 min	1.10%	A
United Airlines	4,997	85.5%	76 min	0.84%	A+
American Airlines	2,585	82.8%	121 min	0.85%	B+
Hawaiian Airlines	16,550	82.5%	50 min	0.68%	B+
Alaska Airlines (this page)	17,970	76.7%	46 min	1.51%	B

The spread between Southwest and Alaska is 14 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 14 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Route by route

Where Alaska Airlines flies from HNL

Alaska Airlines operates 20 routes out of HNL with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.

Alaska Airlines routes from HNL
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
HNL to OGG · Kahului	3,504	76.9%	40 min	1.60%	B
HNL to LIH · Lihue	2,929	77.7%	40 min	2.53%	B
HNL to KOA · Kailua-Kona	2,781	81.9%	39 min	1.65%	B
HNL to ITO · Hilo	2,269	79.5%	39 min	2.03%	B
HNL to SEA · Seattle	1,426	71.9%	62 min	0.84%	C+
HNL to LAX · Los Angeles	776	64.1%	48 min	0.39%	D+
HNL to LAS · Las Vegas	635	73.7%	52 min	0.47%	C+
HNL to SAN · San Diego	551	75.4%	43 min	1.63%	B
HNL to PDX · Portland	452	77.8%	66 min	1.55%	B
HNL to ANC · Anchorage	440	70.0%	57 min	0.91%	C+
HNL to ONT · Ontario	365	76.1%	62 min	0.27%	B+
HNL to SFO · San Franciscothin sample	359	69.8%	54 min	1.39%	C
HNL to SJC · San Josethin sample	181	74.6%	59 min	0.00%	C+
HNL to SMF · Sacramentothin sample	181	69.4%	85 min	0.00%	C+
HNL to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	181	80.7%	64 min	0.00%	B+
HNL to LGB · Long Beachthin sample	181	81.8%	43 min	0.00%	B+
HNL to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	180	78.8%	57 min	0.00%	B+
HNL to OAK · Oaklandthin sample	180	73.7%	41 min	0.00%	C+
HNL to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	178	70.3%	55 min	1.69%	C
HNL to BUR · Burbankthin sample	48	87.5%	77 min	0.00%	A+

Departure window

Best time of day for this operation

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 22 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am2,164 flights90.7%
8am–11am2,986 flights85.7%
11am–2pm4,839 flights70.5%
2pm–5pm3,462 flights68.4%
5pm–8pm2,122 flights76.2%
8pm–5am2,397 flights77.3%

Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.7% of the time, against 68.4% for the afternoon window. That is 22 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 4,839 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

Seasonal pattern

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.June best, July worst

July is the worst month at 63.3% on time, 18 points below June, the best at 81.2%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. January was the busiest month here, with 3,080 flights.

Delay causes

What holds this operation up

Carrier
53%
Late-arriving aircraft
33%
National Airspace System
9%
Extreme weather
5%
Security
0%

The largest share of delay minutes, 53%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 101,000 of the 191,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 191,347 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations sit at 1.51% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.09%.

Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.8% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.

17,970 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.

Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. June runs 81.2% on time and July 63.3%, a swing of 18 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 17,682 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Common questions

Alaska Airlines at HNL

How often is Alaska Airlines at HNL delayed?

About one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.3% of the 17,970 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by roughly 45 minutes on average.

Which airline is most reliable on Alaska Airlines at HNL?

Southwest Airlines leads at 90.4% on time across 12,339 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 76.7%, a gap of 14 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.

What time of day has the fewest delays on Alaska Airlines at HNL?

The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.7% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 68.4%, 22 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.

How bad are July delays on Alaska Airlines at HNL?

July is the weakest month at 63.3% on time, compared with 81.2% in June. Across the year that is 18 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.

Where to go next

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures