Route reliability record
HNL→LAX
Honolulu to Los Angeles
- Flights
- 5,425
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Distance
- 2,556 mi
- Carriers
- 6
This route lands a B+, 4 points better than the national rate of 77.4%. Roughly one flight in five arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 5,425 flights, of which Southwest Airlines flew 513 at 91.2% on time.
Southwest Airlines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 91.2% on time across 513 flights.
Key figures
On time
81.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 5,391 completed flights
Avg delay
80 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.55%
National rate is 1.80%
Best carrier
Southwest
91.2% on time across 513 flights
These figures cover 5,425 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. The median arrival is 8 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 LAX
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Southwest Airlines arrives on time 91.2% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 63.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 643 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 513 | 91.2% | 42 min | 0.78% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,095 | 88.7% | 76 min | 0.73% | A+ |
| United Airlines | 1,259 | 88.2% | 98 min | 0.48% | A+ |
| American Airlines | 1,180 | 85.1% | 139 min | 0.08% | A+ |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 735 | 64.5% | 64 min | 1.09% | D |
| Alaska Airlines | 643 | 63.8% | 50 min | 0.47% | D+ |
The spread between Southwest and Alaska is 27 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 27 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 13 points, against 27 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am701 flights87.8%
- 8am–11am498 flights83.2%
- 11am–2pm1,217 flights77.0%
- 2pm–5pm938 flights75.0%
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am2,071 flights85.3%
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 87.8% of the time, against 75.0% for the afternoon window. That is 13 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
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 23 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.
September is the best month on the calendar at 90.4% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 84.5% on time and Friday the weakest at 79.4%. 5 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 65% of the 78,000 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.
- 65%Carrier
- 25%Late-arriving aircraft
- 8%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 65%, 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 51,000 of the 78,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.55%, 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.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
5.3% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.2%. 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 a little over an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 2,556 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 76.6% on time across 5,427 flights, 5 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 5 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 5,425 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. September runs 90.4% on time and March 67.2%, a swing of 23 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of March before you think about anything else.
Common questions
HNL to LAX questions
How often is HNL to LAX delayed?
Roughly 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 18.2% of the 5,425 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on HNL to LAX?
Southwest Airlines leads at 91.2% on time across 513 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 63.8%, a gap of 27 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 LAX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 87.8% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 75.0%, 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 HNL to LAX?
March is the weakest month at 67.2% on time, compared with 90.4% in September. Across the year that is 23 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
- LAX to HNL — the return legseparate record
- Daniel K. Inouye International (HNL) delay statistics
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- Southwest Airlines on-time record91.2%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record88.7%
- United Airlines on-time record88.2%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
- Do budget airlines really get delayed more? The numbers
Direction matters. HNL to LAX and LAX 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, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.