Carrier performance at one airport
AS→LIH
Alaska Airlines at Lihue Airport
- Departures
- 7,222
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 11
- Rank here
- #6 of 6
Alaska Airlines at Lihue lands a B, about a point 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 7,222 flights, of which Southwest Airlines flew 2,888 at 94.6% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Alaska Airlines runs 6 points behind the 84.4% weighted average across all carriers at LIH. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
78.3%
7,084 completed departures
Avg delay
49 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.80%
At LIH, this carrier only
Rank here
#6
Of 6 carriers clearing the floor at LIH
These figures cover 7,222 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 LIH, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Southwest Airlines arrives on time 94.6% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 78.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 7,222 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 2,888 | 94.6% | 55 min | 0.48% | A+ |
| United Airlines | 1,445 | 91.7% | 51 min | 1.45% | A |
| Delta Air Lines | 730 | 89.5% | 73 min | 2.60% | A |
| American Airlines | 830 | 88.0% | 157 min | 0.60% | A+ |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 2,744 | 83.4% | 41 min | 0.84% | B+ |
| Alaska Airlines (this page) | 7,222 | 78.3% | 49 min | 1.80% | B |
The spread between Southwest and Alaska is 16 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 16 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Route by route
Where Alaska Airlines flies from LIH
Alaska Airlines operates 11 routes out of LIH 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LIH to HNL · Honolulu | 3,954 | 78.9% | 46 min | 2.53% | B |
| LIH to OGG · Kahului | 729 | 77.5% | 36 min | 0.41% | B+ |
| LIH to SEA · Seattle | 729 | 81.3% | 57 min | 1.51% | B |
| LIH to SAN · San Diegothin sample | 294 | 78.1% | 62 min | 1.70% | B |
| LIH to PDX · Portlandthin sample | 284 | 84.4% | 54 min | 0.70% | B+ |
| LIH to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample | 272 | 69.9% | 52 min | 0.74% | C+ |
| LIH to KOA · Kailua-Konathin sample | 243 | 74.0% | 57 min | 0.41% | C+ |
| LIH to SFO · San Franciscothin sample | 234 | 71.0% | 61 min | 1.28% | C |
| LIH to OAK · Oaklandthin sample | 194 | 75.9% | 51 min | 1.03% | B |
| LIH to SJC · San Josethin sample | 150 | 72.0% | 53 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| LIH to SMF · Sacramentothin sample | 139 | 85.5% | 61 min | 0.72% | A+ |
Flight by flight
Alaska Airlines flight numbers from LIH
2 Alaska Airlines flight numbers leaving LIH 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 26 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am557 flights92.0%
- 8am–11am1,281 flights86.6%
- 11am–2pm2,081 flights78.4%
- 2pm–5pm1,480 flights66.2%
- 5pm–8pm1,028 flights75.0%
- 8pm–5am795 flights82.1%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.0% of the time, against 66.2% for the afternoon window. That is 26 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 2,081 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
December is the weak month at 69.0% on time, against 84.4% 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. July was the busiest month here, with 893 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 60%Late-arriving aircraft
- 26%Carrier
- 9%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
60% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 75,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 14 to one. The split is drawn from 74,846 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.80% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.11%.
5.0% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last roughly 50 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 7,222 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. June runs 84.4% on time and December 69.0%, a swing of 15 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else. 7,084 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Alaska Airlines at LIH
How often is Alaska Airlines at LIH 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 21.7% of the 7,222 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 LIH?
Southwest Airlines leads at 94.6% on time across 2,888 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 78.3%, a gap of 16 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 LIH?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.0% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 66.2%, 26 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 LIH?
December is the weakest month at 69.0% on time, compared with 84.4% in June. Across the year that is 15 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.