Carrier performance at one airport
WN→HNL
Southwest Airlines at Daniel K. Inouye International
- Departures
- 12,359
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 13
- Rank here
- #1 of 6
Southwest Airlines at Honolulu earns an A+. Close to nine flights in ten arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 13 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about 45 minutes. That rests on 12,359 flights, of which Southwest Airlines flew 12,359 at 90.2% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs 8 points ahead of 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
90.2%
12,277 completed departures
Avg delay
44 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.55%
At HNL, this carrier only
Rank here
#1
Of 6 carriers clearing the floor at HNL
These figures cover 12,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 7 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
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 (this page) | 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 | 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 Southwest Airlines flies from HNL
Southwest Airlines operates 13 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 | 2,861 | 92.3% | 45 min | 0.56% | A+ |
| HNL to ITO · Hilo | 1,822 | 89.0% | 46 min | 0.82% | A+ |
| HNL to KOA · Kailua-Kona | 1,770 | 90.9% | 44 min | 1.30% | A |
| HNL to LIH · Lihue | 1,770 | 92.3% | 55 min | 0.34% | A+ |
| HNL to LAS · Las Vegas | 901 | 92.4% | 34 min | 0.11% | A+ |
| HNL to SAN · San Diego | 729 | 83.4% | 42 min | 0.14% | B+ |
| HNL to LAX · Los Angeles | 516 | 88.5% | 36 min | 0.58% | A+ |
| HNL to SJC · San Jose | 445 | 88.5% | 42 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| HNL to LGB · Long Beach | 365 | 84.8% | 37 min | 0.27% | B+ |
| HNL to PHX · Phoenix | 365 | 91.2% | 28 min | 0.27% | A+ |
| HNL to SMF · Sacramento | 365 | 86.2% | 49 min | 0.27% | A+ |
| HNL to OAK · Oakland | 365 | 88.2% | 53 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| HNL to ONT · Ontariothin sample | 81 | 80.2% | 41 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 13 points, against 13 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,306 flights96.9%
- 8am–11am2,912 flights93.2%
- 11am–2pm2,986 flights84.1%
- 2pm–5pm888 flights87.1%
- 5pm–8pm1,456 flights90.4%
- 8pm–5am2,811 flights91.2%
Scale runs 75% to 100%.
The weak window here is the middle of the day, not the evening: 11am–2pm runs 84.1% on time against 96.9% for 5am–8am. That shape usually means a departure bank rather than an accumulating delay, so the recovery later in the afternoon is real rather than noise. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 2,986 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
October is the best month on the calendar at 96.2% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. July was the busiest month here, with 1,129 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 38%Late-arriving aircraft
- 38%Carrier
- 22%National Airspace System
- 1%Security
- 1%Extreme weather
38% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 52,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 38 to one. The split is drawn from 51,900 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.55%, below the national 1.89% 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 1.8% 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.
12,359 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. October runs 96.2% on time and March 78.6%, a swing of 18 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of March before you think about anything else. 12,277 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at HNL
How often is Southwest Airlines at HNL delayed?
About one flight in ten arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 9.8% of the 12,359 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 45 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Southwest 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 Southwest Airlines at HNL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 96.9% on time. The 11am–2pm window is the weakest at 84.1%, 13 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 March delays on Southwest Airlines at HNL?
March is the weakest month at 78.6% on time, compared with 96.2% in October. 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.