Route reliability record
HNL→LAS
Honolulu to Las Vegas
- Flights
- 2,203
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 2,762 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route lands a B+, 3 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. About 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 2,203 flights, of which Southwest Airlines flew 902 at 92.6% on time.
Southwest Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 92.6% on time across 902 flights.
Key figures
On time
80.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,190 completed flights
Avg delay
54 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.36%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
Southwest
92.6% on time across 902 flights
These figures cover 2,203 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 4 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.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on HNL to LAS
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Southwest Airlines arrives on time 92.6% of the time; Hawaiian Airlines manages 72.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 666 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 902 | 92.6% | 36 min | 0.44% | A+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 635 | 73.7% | 52 min | 0.47% | C+ |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 666 | 72.0% | 63 min | 0.15% | C+ |
The spread between Southwest and Hawaiian is 21 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 21 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 19 points, against 21 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am82 flights85.2%
- 8am–11am648 flights84.9%
- 11am–2pm405 flights80.5%
- 2pm–5pm344 flights66.2%
- 5pm–8pm1 flights—
- 8pm–5am723 flights84.1%
Scale runs 60% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 85.2% of the time, against 66.2% for the afternoon window. That is 19 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 723 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 21 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.
Delays peak in March, when the on-time rate falls to 69.3%. August is the strongest month at 90.0%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 21 points. May was the busiest month here, with 206 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 88.7% on time and Friday the weakest at 75.7%. 13 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 72% of the 23,000 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.
- 72%Carrier
- 21%Late-arriving aircraft
- 6%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
- 1%Security
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 16,000 of the 23,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 22,615 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.36%, 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.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
5.1% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route are the about 55 minutes kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 2,762 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 76.9% on time across 2,208 flights, 4 points below this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 4 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 2,203 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. August runs 90.0% on time and March 69.3%, a swing of 21 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of March before you think about anything else. 2,190 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
HNL to LAS questions
How often is HNL to LAS delayed?
About 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 19.1% of the 2,203 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 55 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on HNL to LAS?
Southwest Airlines leads at 92.6% on time across 902 flights. Hawaiian Airlines is at the other end on 72.0%, a gap of 21 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 HNL to LAS?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 85.2% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 66.2%, 19 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 HNL to LAS?
March is the weakest month at 69.3% on time, compared with 90.0% in August. Across the year that is 21 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
- LAS to HNL — the return legseparate record
- Daniel K. Inouye International (HNL) delay statistics
- Harry Reid International (LAS) delay statistics
- Southwest Airlines on-time record92.6%
- Alaska Airlines on-time record73.7%
- Hawaiian Airlines on-time record72.0%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
Direction matters. HNL to LAS and LAS to HNL are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.