Carrier performance at one airport
AS→KOA
Alaska Airlines at Ellison Onizuka Kona International at Keahole
- Departures
- 7,372
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 11
- Rank here
- #6 of 6
Alaska Airlines at Kailua-Kona lands a B, 2 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by roughly 50 minutes on average. That rests on 7,372 flights, of which Southwest Airlines flew 2,888 at 94.2% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Alaska Airlines runs 6 points behind the 85.2% weighted average across all carriers at KOA. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
79.7%
7,258 completed departures
Avg delay
48 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.45%
At KOA, this carrier only
Rank here
#6
Of 6 carriers clearing the floor at KOA
These figures cover 7,372 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 KOA, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Southwest Airlines arrives on time 94.2% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 79.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 7,372 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 2,888 | 94.2% | 64 min | 1.04% | A |
| United Airlines | 1,834 | 89.7% | 75 min | 1.53% | A |
| Delta Air Lines | 826 | 87.7% | 47 min | 3.15% | A− |
| American Airlines | 856 | 87.5% | 137 min | 1.40% | A |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 2,301 | 86.5% | 45 min | 0.87% | A+ |
| Alaska Airlines (this page) | 7,372 | 79.7% | 48 min | 1.45% | B |
Delta Air Lines cancels 3.1% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Where Alaska Airlines flies from KOA
Alaska Airlines operates 11 routes out of KOA 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KOA to HNL · Honolulu | 3,697 | 77.6% | 45 min | 1.79% | B |
| KOA to SEA · Seattle | 1,047 | 85.8% | 58 min | 1.91% | A |
| KOA to OGG · Kahului | 729 | 82.2% | 38 min | 0.41% | B+ |
| KOA to LAX · Los Angeles | 374 | 79.5% | 48 min | 0.80% | B+ |
| KOA to PDX · Portland | 365 | 83.2% | 48 min | 0.27% | B+ |
| KOA to SAN · San Diegothin sample | 364 | 74.9% | 56 min | 0.55% | C+ |
| KOA to SFO · San Franciscothin sample | 244 | 71.0% | 60 min | 1.23% | C |
| KOA to LIH · Lihuethin sample | 243 | 94.6% | 38 min | 0.82% | A+ |
| KOA to SJC · San Josethin sample | 151 | 73.2% | 75 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| KOA to SMF · Sacramentothin sample | 104 | 79.8% | 34 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| KOA to ANC · Anchoragethin sample | 54 | 61.7% | 40 min | 12.96% | D− |
Flight by flight
Alaska Airlines flight numbers from KOA
4 Alaska Airlines flight numbers leaving KOA 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 16 points, against 15 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am339 flights90.2%
- 8am–11am1,595 flights87.9%
- 11am–2pm2,023 flights76.0%
- 2pm–5pm1,790 flights73.9%
- 5pm–8pm870 flights77.6%
- 8pm–5am755 flights83.1%
Scale runs 65% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.2% of the time, against 73.9% for the afternoon window. That is 16 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 2,023 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
September is the best month on the calendar at 86.4% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. January was the busiest month here, with 855 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 58%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%Carrier
- 13%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
58% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 70,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 15 to one. The split is drawn from 70,410 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.45% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.09%.
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.3% 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.
The sample behind these figures is 7,372 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 86.4% on time and October 67.5%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of October before you think about anything else. 7,258 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Alaska Airlines at KOA
How often is Alaska Airlines at KOA delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 20.3% of the 7,372 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by roughly 50 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Alaska Airlines at KOA?
Southwest Airlines leads at 94.2% on time across 2,888 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 79.7%, a gap of 15 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 KOA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.2% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 73.9%, 16 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 October delays on Alaska Airlines at KOA?
October is the weakest month at 67.5% on time, compared with 86.4% in September. Across the year that is 19 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.