Airport month record
HNLSEP
Daniel K. Inouye International in September 2025
- Departures
- 4,480
- Month
- September 2025
- National, same month
- 83.4%
- Carriers
- 6
Historical statistics for September 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s September. For today’s conditions at HNL, see live FAA status.
HNL in September 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 8 points better than the national rate of 83.4%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about an hour. That rests on 4,480 flights, of which Southwest Airlines flew 978 at 96.0% on time.
Set against the rest of the country, HNL's September record is 8 points better than the US average of 83.4%. That gap is worth roughly 80 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
91.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,463 completed departures
Avg delay
61 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.25%
Nationally in September: 0.51%
Whole year
82.9%
HNL across all twelve months
These figures cover 4,480 departures from Daniel K. Inouye International in September 2025. On time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the DOT's threshold, and the national comparison uses every US departure in the same month rather than the whole year.
Against the year
September next to HNL's other months
Against HNL's own year, September ran 9 points better than the twelve-month rate of 82.9%, which makes it the best of the twelve months in the data. Cancellations were unusually low for HNL in September, at 0.25% against 0.96% across the year. Either side of it, August ran 88.7% on time and October 87.4%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.
| Month | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2025 | 5,176 | 83.9% | 56 min | 1.22% | B |
| August 2025 | 4,921 | 88.7% | 55 min | 0.22% | A+ |
| September 2025 (this page) | 4,480 | 91.4% | 61 min | 0.25% | A+ |
| October 2025 | 4,682 | 87.4% | 58 min | 0.53% | A+ |
| November 2025 | 4,623 | 84.2% | 50 min | 1.64% | B |
| December 2025 | 5,054 | 76.1% | 58 min | 0.67% | B+ |
| January 2026 | 5,054 | 79.7% | 59 min | 1.37% | B |
| February 2026 | 4,464 | 81.8% | 55 min | 0.90% | B+ |
| March 2026 | 5,037 | 73.7% | 56 min | 2.24% | C |
| April 2026 | 4,809 | 82.8% | 47 min | 0.60% | B+ |
| May 2026 | 4,953 | 82.7% | 47 min | 1.13% | B |
| June 2026 | 4,899 | 83.7% | 44 min | 0.69% | B+ |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave HNL in September
Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 4,480 flights.
- 5am–8am514 flights96.7%
- 8am–11am702 flights92.8%
- 11am–2pm1,082 flights89.1%
- 2pm–5pm759 flights89.2%
- 5pm–8pm596 flights92.9%
- 8pm–5am827 flights90.9%
Scale runs 80% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The weak window here is the middle of the day, not the evening: 11am–2pm runs 89.1% on time against 96.7% 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 1,082 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 94.5% on time and Thursday the weakest at 88.5%. 6 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at HNL in September
The two carriers here are closely matched: 6 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hawaiian Airlines | 2,635 | 90.4% | 48 min | 0.15% | A+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 978 | 96.0% | 45 min | 0.20% | A+ |
| United Airlinesthin sample | 318 | 91.8% | 110 min | 0.31% | A+ |
| Delta Air Linesthin sample | 277 | 90.5% | 118 min | 0.72% | A+ |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 152 | 88.0% | 146 min | 0.66% | A+ |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 120 | 80.7% | 47 min | 0.83% | B+ |
No carrier stands out. Southwest tops the table at 96.0%, 6 points clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.
Route by route
Busiest routes out of HNL in September
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HNL to OGG · Kahului | 853 | 94.6% | 42 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| HNL to LIH · Lihue | 625 | 92.4% | 47 min | 0.64% | A+ |
| HNL to KOA · Kailua-Kona | 570 | 94.9% | 39 min | 0.35% | A+ |
| HNL to ITO · Hilo | 496 | 95.0% | 38 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| HNL to LAX · Los Angeles | 386 | 90.4% | 79 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| HNL to SEA · Seattlethin sample | 240 | 77.1% | 65 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| HNL to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample | 180 | 87.7% | 72 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| HNL to SFO · San Franciscothin sample | 146 | 90.4% | 131 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| HNL to SAN · San Diegothin sample | 140 | 89.9% | 37 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| HNL to PHX · Phoenixthin sample | 92 | 93.5% | 56 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| HNL to PDX · Portlandthin sample | 71 | 87.3% | 33 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| HNL to OAK · Oaklandthin sample | 60 | 90.0% | 45 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| HNL to LGB · Long Beachthin sample | 60 | 95.0% | 37 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| HNL to SMF · Sacramentothin sample | 60 | 75.0% | 50 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| HNL to SJC · San Josethin sample | 60 | 91.7% | 59 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| HNL to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample | 60 | 93.1% | 77 min | 3.33% | A− |
| HNL to JFK · New Yorkthin sample | 50 | 84.0% | 45 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| HNL to DEN · Denverthin sample | 39 | 89.5% | 23 min | 2.56% | A |
| HNL to ONT · Ontariothin sample | 30 | 90.0% | 48 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| HNL to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 30 | 78.6% | 345 min | 3.33% | B− |
| HNL to ANC · Anchoragethin sample | 30 | 75.9% | 48 min | 3.33% | B− |
| HNL to ORD · Chicagothin sample | 30 | 93.3% | 159 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| HNL to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 30 | 96.7% | 37 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| HNL to ATL · Atlantathin sample | 30 | 86.7% | 106 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| HNL to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample | 30 | 93.3% | 115 min | 0.00% | A+ |
Delay causes
What held HNL up in September
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 63% of the 24,000 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.
- 63%Carrier
- 31%Late-arriving aircraft
- 3%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 63%, 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 15,000 of the 24,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 23,535 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.25%, below the national 0.51% 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 2.1% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 5.4% 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.
What to do with this
Flying from HNL in September
For a September trip through HNL: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 91.4% on time with 0.25% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.
Related
Where to go next
- Daniel K. Inouye International (HNL), the whole year
- HNL in July83.9%
- HNL in August88.7%
- HNL in October87.4%
- HNL in November84.2%
- HNL in December76.1%
- HNL in January79.7%
- HNL in February81.8%
- HNL in March73.7%
- HNL in April82.8%
- HNL in May82.7%
- HNL in June83.7%
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.