Route reliability record
HNL→SFO
Honolulu to San Francisco
- Flights
- 2,476
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 2,398 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route lands a B, 4 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 2,476 HNL to SFO flights, of which United Airlines flew 1,779 at 85.1% on time.
Best time to fly HNL to SFO: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 94.2% of the time and Tuesday flights 87.8%, against 80.8% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
80.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,443 completed flights
Avg delay
61 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.21%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
85.1% on time across 1,779 flights
These figures cover 2,476 flights between September 2025 and August 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.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on HNL to SFO
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 85.1% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 69.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 480 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 1,779 | 85.1% | 64 min | 0.62% | A+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 480 | 69.8% | 58 min | 2.08% | C |
| Hawaiian Airlinesthin sample | 217 | 69.4% | 54 min | 4.15% | C− |
The spread between United and Alaska is 15 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 15 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on HNL to SFO
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Honolulu to San Francisco
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 2 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. HNL → SJCHonolulu to San Jose | Southwest Airlines | 88.5% | 88.5% | 0.00% | 11am–2pm, Tue | — |
| 2. HNL → OAKHonolulu to Oakland | Southwest Airlines | 88.2% | 88.2% | 0.00% | 8pm–5am, Wed | — |
| 3. HNL → SFOHonolulu to San Francisco | United Airlines | 84.6% | 85.1% | 0.62% | 8am–11am, Tue | UA 373 07:00 |
| 4. HNL → SFOHonolulu to San Francisco | Alaska Airlines | 68.3% | 69.8% | 2.08% | 8pm–5am, Tue | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
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 23 points, against 15 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am259 flights89.1%
- 8am–11am312 flights94.2%
- 11am–2pm716 flights71.7%
- 2pm–5pm370 flights77.0%
- 5pm–8pm19 flights—
- 8pm–5am800 flights83.5%
Scale runs 65% 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 71.7% on time against 94.2% for 8am–11am. 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 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 800 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter HNL to SFO 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 HNL to SFO, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 94.2% on time and the worst is 11am–2pm at 71.7%, a wide gap of 22.5 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am89.1%
- 8–11am94.2%
- 11am–2pm71.7%
- 2–5pm77.0%
- 5–8pm—
- 8pm–5am83.5%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 100%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 16 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.
June is the worst month at 74.2% on time, 16 points below September, the best at 90.4%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. July was the busiest month here, with 279 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 87.8% on time and Sunday the weakest at 76.7%, a spread of 11 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 57% of the 28,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 57%Carrier
- 29%Late-arriving aircraft
- 13%National Airspace System
- 1%Security
- 0%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 57%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 16,000 of the 28,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 28,293 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 8am–11am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 94.2% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.21% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.12%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.0% 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.
At 2,398 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 runs 80.0% on time across 2,477 flights, within about a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 2,476 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in SFO after this flight
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 June 74.2%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 2,443 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
HNL to SFO questions
How often is HNL to SFO delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 19.2% of the 2,476 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on HNL to SFO?
United Airlines leads at 85.1% on time across 1,779 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 69.8%, a gap of 15 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 SFO?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 94.2% on time. The 11am–2pm window is the weakest at 71.7%, 23 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 June delays on HNL to SFO?
June is the weakest month at 74.2% on time, compared with 90.4% in September. Across the year that is 16 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
- SFO to HNL — the return legseparate record
- Daniel K. Inouye International (HNL) delay statistics
- San Francisco International (SFO) delay statistics
- United Airlines on HNL to SFO85.1%
- Alaska Airlines on HNL to SFO69.8%
- Hawaiian Airlines on HNL to SFO69.4%
- HNL to OGG, a related route84.1%
- LAX to SFO, a related route60.1%
- HNL to LIH, a related route83.7%
- United Airlines on-time record85.1%
- Alaska Airlines on-time record69.8%
- Hawaiian Airlines on-time record69.4%
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. HNL to SFO and SFO to HNL are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.