Carrier performance at one airport
AS→HNL
Alaska Airlines at Daniel K. Inouye International
- Departures
- 23,409
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 20
- Rank here
- #6 of 6
Alaska Airlines at Honolulu lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by roughly 45 minutes on average. That rests on 23,409 flights, of which Southwest Airlines flew 12,359 at 90.2% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Alaska Airlines runs 5 points behind the 82.1% 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.
Key figures
On time
77.0%
23,014 completed departures
Avg delay
47 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.59%
At HNL, this carrier only
Rank here
#6
Of 6 carriers clearing the floor at HNL
These figures cover 23,000 flights between September 2025 and August 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 90.2% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 77.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 23,409 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 12,359 | 90.2% | 44 min | 0.55% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 3,711 | 86.0% | 70 min | 1.35% | A |
| United Airlines | 5,102 | 85.0% | 73 min | 0.90% | A+ |
| American Airlines | 2,646 | 82.1% | 124 min | 0.79% | B+ |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 10,807 | 81.4% | 52 min | 0.85% | B+ |
| Alaska Airlines (this page) | 23,409 | 77.0% | 47 min | 1.59% | B |
The spread between Southwest and Alaska is 13 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 13 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.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HNL to OGG · Kahului | 4,650 | 78.2% | 40 min | 1.66% | B |
| HNL to LIH · Lihue | 3,952 | 78.6% | 39 min | 2.25% | B |
| HNL to KOA · Kailua-Kona | 3,696 | 82.0% | 38 min | 1.62% | B |
| HNL to ITO · Hilo | 2,998 | 79.3% | 39 min | 2.30% | B |
| HNL to SEA · Seattle | 1,663 | 71.1% | 62 min | 1.26% | C |
| HNL to LAX · Los Angeles | 1,053 | 65.5% | 49 min | 0.57% | C+ |
| HNL to LAS · Las Vegas | 809 | 73.9% | 55 min | 0.74% | C+ |
| HNL to SAN · San Diego | 728 | 75.2% | 45 min | 1.79% | B |
| HNL to PDX · Portland | 611 | 76.8% | 60 min | 1.80% | B |
| HNL to SFO · San Francisco | 480 | 69.8% | 58 min | 2.08% | C |
| HNL to ANC · Anchorage | 438 | 73.6% | 59 min | 0.46% | C+ |
| HNL to ONT · Ontario | 365 | 72.5% | 62 min | 0.27% | C+ |
| HNL to SMF · Sacramentothin sample | 243 | 63.1% | 105 min | 0.41% | D+ |
| HNL to PHX · Phoenixthin sample | 243 | 77.0% | 56 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| HNL to LGB · Long Beachthin sample | 243 | 78.6% | 52 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| HNL to SJC · San Josethin sample | 243 | 72.4% | 56 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| HNL to OAK · Oaklandthin sample | 242 | 74.2% | 48 min | 0.41% | C+ |
| HNL to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample | 242 | 79.2% | 52 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| HNL to JFK · New Yorkthin sample | 240 | 71.5% | 50 min | 1.25% | C |
| HNL to BUR · Burbankthin sample | 97 | 81.4% | 51 min | 0.00% | B+ |
Flight by flight
Alaska Airlines flight numbers from HNL
2 Alaska Airlines flight numbers leaving HNL flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
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 13 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am2,826 flights91.4%
- 8am–11am3,892 flights86.1%
- 11am–2pm6,511 flights69.7%
- 2pm–5pm4,336 flights69.2%
- 5pm–8pm2,734 flights77.1%
- 8pm–5am3,110 flights78.4%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.4% of the time, against 69.2% 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 6,511 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
December is the weak month at 63.4% on time, against 81.2% in June. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. January was the busiest month here, with 3,080 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 51%Carrier
- 33%Late-arriving aircraft
- 11%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 51%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 127,000 of the 247,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 246,951 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.59% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.10%.
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.7% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% 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.
23,409 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 December 63.4%, a swing of 18 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else. 23,014 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Alaska Airlines at HNL
How often is Alaska Airlines at HNL delayed?
Roughly one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.0% of the 23,409 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% 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 90.2% on time across 12,359 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 77.0%, a gap of 13 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 91.4% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 69.2%, 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 December delays on Alaska Airlines at HNL?
December is the weakest month at 63.4% 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.
Related
Where to go next
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.