Carrier performance at one airport

HA→HNL

Hawaiian Airlines at Daniel K. Inouye International

Departures: 19,339
Period: June 2025 to May 2026
Routes: 18
Rank here: #4 of 6

Hawaiian Airlines at Honolulu lands a B+, 6 points better than the national rate of 77.4%. About one flight in six arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about 50 minutes on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 19,339 flights, of which Southwest Airlines flew 12,302 at 90.7% on time.

Measured against the airport rather than the country, Hawaiian Airlines runs half a point behind the 83.2% 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

82.9%

19,199 completed departures

Avg delay

49 min

Across delayed flights only

Cancelled

0.60%

At HNL, this carrier only

Rank here

Of 6 carriers clearing the floor at HNL

These figures cover 19,000 flights between June 2025 and May 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 90.7% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 75.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 15,362 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	12,302	90.7%	46 min	0.60%	A+
Delta Air Lines	3,711	86.7%	72 min	1.08%	A
United Airlines	4,957	86.4%	78 min	0.87%	A+
Hawaiian Airlines (this page)	19,339	82.9%	49 min	0.60%	B+
American Airlines	2,552	82.7%	120 min	0.86%	B+
Alaska Airlines	15,362	75.9%	48 min	1.59%	B

The spread between Southwest and Alaska is 15 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 15 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Route by route

Where Hawaiian Airlines flies from HNL

Hawaiian Airlines operates 18 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.

Hawaiian Airlines routes from HNL
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
HNL to OGG · Kahului	4,448	86.4%	36 min	0.63%	A+
HNL to LIH · Lihue	3,588	87.8%	38 min	0.75%	A+
HNL to KOA · Kailua-Kona	3,207	87.6%	36 min	0.62%	A+
HNL to ITO · Hilo	2,587	87.8%	35 min	0.39%	A+
HNL to SEA · Seattle	848	65.7%	74 min	0.47%	C+
HNL to LAS · Las Vegas	756	74.0%	62 min	0.13%	C+
HNL to LAX · Los Angeles	735	64.5%	64 min	1.09%	D
HNL to SAN · San Diego	549	70.7%	72 min	0.73%	C+
HNL to PDX · Portland	533	75.9%	76 min	0.75%	B+
HNL to SFO · San Francisco	379	67.3%	52 min	2.64%	C
HNL to OAK · Oaklandthin sample	214	79.0%	47 min	0.00%	B+
HNL to SMF · Sacramentothin sample	214	72.3%	69 min	0.00%	C+
HNL to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	214	70.9%	46 min	0.00%	C+
HNL to LGB · Long Beachthin sample	214	74.6%	35 min	0.47%	C+
HNL to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	214	79.0%	46 min	0.00%	B+
HNL to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	214	86.4%	82 min	0.00%	A+
HNL to SJC · San Josethin sample	212	80.5%	58 min	0.00%	B+
HNL to BOS · Bostonthin sample	110	75.5%	47 min	0.00%	B+

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. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am2,479 flights92.9%
8am–11am3,186 flights88.4%
11am–2pm4,653 flights79.6%
2pm–5pm3,805 flights77.0%
5pm–8pm2,855 flights86.4%
8pm–5am2,361 flights77.2%

Scale runs 70% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.9% of the time, against 77.0% 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.

Across the year

Seasonal pattern

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.September best, December worst

December is the weak month at 70.9% on time, against 90.4% 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.

Delay causes

What holds this operation up

Carrier
72%
Late-arriving aircraft
25%
Extreme weather
2%
Security
1%
National Airspace System
0%

The largest share of delay minutes, 72%, 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 115,000 of the 161,000 delay minutes reported here.

Cancellations are rare at 0.60%, below the national 1.80% 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 3.4% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.2% 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.

19,339 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. September runs 90.4% on time and December 70.9%, a swing of 20 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else.

Common questions

Hawaiian Airlines at HNL

How often is Hawaiian Airlines at HNL delayed?

About one flight in six arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 17.1% of the 19,339 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 50 minutes on average.

Which airline is most reliable on Hawaiian Airlines at HNL?

Southwest Airlines leads at 90.7% on time across 12,302 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 75.9%, 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 Hawaiian Airlines at HNL?

The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.9% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 77.0%, 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 December delays on Hawaiian Airlines at HNL?

December is the weakest month at 70.9% on time, compared with 90.4% in September. Across the year that is 20 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, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures