Honolulu, HI · departure reliability

HNL

Daniel K. Inouye International

Departures: 58,034
Period: September 2025 to August 2026
Carriers: 6
US rank: #33 by volume

Terminal building and aircraft stands at a US airport

Honolulu

Daniel K. Inouye International lands a B, 5 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about 55 minutes on average. That rests on 58,034 flights, of which Southwest Airlines flew 12,359 at 90.2% on time.

Southwest Airlines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 90.2% on time across 12,359 flights.

On time

82.1%

Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination

Avg delay

54 min

Across delayed flights only

Cancelled

1.12%

National rate is 1.89%

Best carrier

Southwest

90.2% on time here

These figures cover 58,000 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.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines run best out of HNL

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.

On-time performance by carrier departing HNL
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Alaska Airlines	23,409	77.0%	47 min	1.59%	B
Southwest Airlines	12,359	90.2%	44 min	0.55%	A+
Hawaiian Airlines	10,807	81.4%	52 min	0.85%	B+
United Airlines	5,102	85.0%	73 min	0.90%	A+
Delta Air Lines	3,711	86.0%	70 min	1.35%	A
American Airlines	2,646	82.1%	124 min	0.79%	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

Busiest routes out of HNL

Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from HNL, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 82.1%.

Busiest routes from HNL by flight volume
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
HNL to OGG · Kahului	9,998	84.1%	40 min	1.11%	B
HNL to LIH · Lihue	7,699	83.7%	41 min	1.49%	B
HNL to KOA · Kailua-Kona	7,226	85.3%	39 min	1.41%	A
HNL to ITO · Hilo	6,276	83.6%	39 min	1.42%	B
HNL to LAX · Los Angeles	5,540	80.3%	76 min	0.58%	B+
HNL to SEA · Seattle	2,931	74.9%	72 min	1.09%	C
HNL to SFO · San Francisco	2,476	80.8%	61 min	1.21%	B
HNL to LAS · Las Vegas	2,178	80.8%	55 min	0.37%	B+
HNL to SAN · San Diego	1,774	76.7%	52 min	1.01%	B
HNL to PHX · Phoenix	1,317	83.3%	76 min	0.68%	B+
HNL to PDX · Portland	906	76.5%	70 min	1.66%	B
HNL to SLC · Salt Lake City	856	82.3%	65 min	1.75%	B
HNL to SJC · San Jose	808	81.4%	51 min	0.00%	B+
HNL to LGB · Long Beach	730	81.3%	44 min	0.27%	B+
HNL to SMF · Sacramento	730	75.0%	79 min	0.27%	B+
HNL to OAK · Oakland	729	81.2%	49 min	0.14%	B+
HNL to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	702	80.8%	121 min	1.71%	B
HNL to JFK · New York	659	80.2%	52 min	1.82%	B
HNL to DEN · Denver	650	86.6%	73 min	0.77%	A+
HNL to ORD · Chicago	540	84.5%	81 min	0.74%	B+
HNL to ONT · Ontario	446	73.9%	59 min	0.22%	C+
HNL to ANC · Anchorage	438	73.6%	59 min	0.46%	C+
HNL to ATL · Atlanta	383	79.2%	74 min	0.78%	B+
HNL to MSP · Minneapolis	365	85.9%	88 min	0.82%	A+
HNL to IAH · Houston	365	82.8%	53 min	0.27%	B+

Departure window

The best time of day to leave HNL

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 17 points, against 13 points between the best and worst carrier.

5am–8am6,409 flights92.6%
8am–11am9,210 flights88.7%
11am–2pm13,713 flights75.9%
2pm–5pm10,067 flights75.8%
5pm–8pm7,400 flights82.7%
8pm–5am11,235 flights83.8%

Scale runs 65% to 100%.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.6% of the time, against 75.8% for the afternoon window. That is 17 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 13,713 flights scheduled in it.

Explore

Filter HNL departures by airline, time, month and day

Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.

On departures from Honolulu (HNL), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 92.6% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 75.8%, a wide gap of 16.8 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.

5–8am92.6%
8–11am88.7%
11am–2pm75.9%
2–5pm75.8%
5–8pm82.7%
8pm–5am83.8%

best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.

Across the year

When HNL runs late

HNL's year swings by 18 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.

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

September is the best month on the calendar at 91.4% 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 5,112 flights.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 85.2% on time and Friday the weakest at 78.6%, a spread of 7 points.

HNL month by month

Delay causes

Why HNL gets delayed

Carrier accounts for 53% of the 552,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.

Carrier
53%
Late-arriving aircraft
33%
National Airspace System
11%
Extreme weather
3%
Security
0%

The largest share of delay minutes, 53%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 292,000 of the 552,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 552,159 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 92.6% on time here.

Cancellations sit at 1.12% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.13%.

Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.9% 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.

58,034 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

Flying out of HNL

Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 91.4% on time and March 73.7%, a swing of 18 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of March before you think about anything else. 57,309 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Common questions

HNL delay questions

How often is Honolulu (HNL) delayed?

About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 17.9% of the 58,034 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 55 minutes on average.

Which airline is most reliable on Honolulu (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 Honolulu (HNL)?

The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.6% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 75.8%, 17 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 Honolulu (HNL)?

March is the weakest month at 73.7% on time, compared with 91.4% in September. 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.

Where to go next

Embed HNL’s on-time badge on your site

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<iframe src="https://delayatlas.com/embed/airport/hnl" width="320" height="132" style="border:0;max-width:100%" loading="lazy" title="HNL airport on-time record"></iframe>
<p style="font:12px/1.4 sans-serif;margin:4px 0 0">HNL airport delay statistics from <a href="https://delayatlas.com/airports/hnl">DelayAtlas</a></p>

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated 22 October 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.