Airline on-time record
HA
Hawaiian Airlines
- Flights
- 40,187
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Airports
- 15
- US rank
- #14 by volume
Hawaiian Airlines lands a B+, 4 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. Roughly one flight in five arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about 55 minutes on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 40,187 flights, of which Long Beach (LGB) flew 368 at 92.1% on time.
Long Beach (LGB) is the most reliable of the fifteen airports covered here at 92.1% on time across 368 flights.
Key figures
On time
81.5%
National average is 77.6%
Avg delay
55 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.73%
National rate is 1.81%
Largest base
HNL
16,550 departures, 82.5% on time
These figures cover 40,000 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.
Airport by airport
Where Hawaiian Airlines runs well, and where it does not
The choice of airport is not cosmetic here. Long Beach (LGB) arrives on time 92.1% of the time; Portland (PDX) manages 58.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 464 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airport | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HNL · Honolulu | 16,550 | 82.5% | 50 min | 0.68% | B+ |
| OGG · Kahului | 6,523 | 82.2% | 43 min | 0.67% | B+ |
| LIH · Lihue | 4,232 | 83.8% | 41 min | 0.71% | B+ |
| KOA · Kailua-Kona | 3,542 | 87.3% | 42 min | 0.59% | A+ |
| ITO · Hilo | 2,372 | 85.3% | 36 min | 0.46% | A+ |
| SEA · Seattle | 1,034 | 60.5% | 82 min | 1.26% | D |
| LAX · Los Angeles | 987 | 71.1% | 74 min | 0.91% | C+ |
| LAS · Las Vegas | 855 | 69.4% | 86 min | 0.47% | C+ |
| SMF · Sacramento | 553 | 82.4% | 71 min | 1.08% | B |
| SFO · San Francisco | 507 | 75.1% | 67 min | 1.97% | B |
| OAK · Oakland | 498 | 88.2% | 171 min | 2.41% | A |
| SAN · San Diego | 487 | 60.8% | 78 min | 1.64% | D |
| PDX · Portland | 464 | 58.7% | 71 min | 1.08% | D |
| LGB · Long Beach | 368 | 92.1% | 47 min | 0.82% | A+ |
| SJC · San Jose | 366 | 92.1% | 102 min | 0.00% | A+ |
The spread between LGB and PDX is 33 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 33 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Route by route
Busiest Hawaiian Airlines routes
These are the 22 routes Hawaiian Airlines flies most often, each against its network-wide 81.5%. Route-level variation inside a single airline is routinely wider than the gap between two airlines nationally.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HNL to OGG | 3,811 | 86.0% | 37 min | 0.66% | A+ |
| OGG to HNL | 3,810 | 85.8% | 40 min | 0.89% | A+ |
| LIH to HNL | 3,057 | 85.0% | 41 min | 0.88% | A+ |
| HNL to LIH | 3,056 | 87.6% | 38 min | 0.85% | A+ |
| KOA to HNL | 2,727 | 86.4% | 43 min | 0.66% | A+ |
| HNL to KOA | 2,727 | 87.6% | 37 min | 0.73% | A+ |
| HNL to ITO | 2,215 | 87.4% | 35 min | 0.45% | A+ |
| ITO to HNL | 2,214 | 84.9% | 37 min | 0.50% | B+ |
| HNL to SEA | 727 | 66.0% | 81 min | 0.55% | C+ |
| SEA to HNL | 727 | 57.5% | 89 min | 1.51% | D |
| LAS to HNL | 670 | 69.0% | 85 min | 0.15% | C+ |
| HNL to LAS | 666 | 72.0% | 63 min | 0.15% | C+ |
| LAX to HNL | 619 | 63.2% | 82 min | 1.29% | D |
| HNL to LAX | 619 | 63.0% | 65 min | 1.29% | D |
| OGG to KOA | 552 | 82.2% | 36 min | 0.18% | B+ |
| KOA to OGG | 552 | 90.0% | 40 min | 0.36% | A+ |
| LIH to OGG | 552 | 87.1% | 37 min | 0.36% | A+ |
| OGG to LIH | 552 | 77.1% | 39 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SAN to HNL | 487 | 60.8% | 78 min | 1.64% | D |
| HNL to SAN | 485 | 70.5% | 72 min | 0.82% | C+ |
| HNL to PDX | 468 | 75.4% | 75 min | 0.85% | B+ |
| PDX to HNL | 464 | 58.7% | 71 min | 1.08% | D |
Departure window
The best time of day to fly Hawaiian Airlines
Departure time matters more here than the choice of airport. The gap between the best and worst window is 14 points, against 33 points between the best and worst airport. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am5,699 flights90.0%
- 8am–11am9,022 flights83.9%
- 11am–2pm9,095 flights79.9%
- 2pm–5pm7,066 flights76.4%
- 5pm–8pm5,519 flights81.3%
- 8pm–5am3,786 flights76.1%
Scale runs 70% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.0% of the time, against 76.1% for the overnight window. That is 14 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 9,095 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Hawaiian Airlines through the calendar
Hawaiian's year swings by 16 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
December is the weak month at 72.0% on time, against 88.4% in September. 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 7,066 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 83.6% on time and Thursday the weakest at 77.8%. 6 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
What holds Hawaiian Airlines up
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 65% of the 405,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 65%Carrier
- 31%Late-arriving aircraft
- 2%Extreme weather
- 1%National Airspace System
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 65%, 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 airports on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 262,000 of the 405,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 404,657 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 90.0% on time here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.73%, below the national 1.81% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.8% 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.
40,187 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.
What to do with this
Booking Hawaiian Airlines
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 88.4% on time and December 72.0%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else. 39,849 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Hawaiian Airlines reliability questions
How often is Hawaiian Airlines delayed?
Roughly one flight in five arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 18.5% of the 40,187 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 55 minutes on average.
Which airport does Hawaiian Airlines run best from?
Long Beach (LGB) leads at 92.1% on time across 368 flights. Portland (PDX) is at the other end on 58.7%, a gap of 33 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 Hawaiian Airlines?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.0% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 76.1%, 14 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 Hawaiian Airlines?
December is the weakest month at 72.0% on time, compared with 88.4% in September. Across the year that is 16 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
- Hawaiian Airlines at HNL — Honolulu82.5%
- Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA) delay statistics60.5%
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics71.1%
- Harry Reid International (LAS) delay statistics69.4%
- Sacramento International (SMF) delay statistics82.4%
- HNL to OGG route record86.0%
- OGG to HNL route record85.8%
- LIH to HNL route record85.0%
- HNL to LIH route record87.6%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
- Do budget airlines really get delayed more? The numbers
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.