Carrier route record
HAHNL→SFO
Hawaiian Airlines · Honolulu to San Francisco
- Flights
- 217
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 9%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Hawaiian Airlines.
Hawaiian on HNL to SFO sits in the middle of the pack with a C−. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 8 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land roughly 55 minutes behind schedule. That rests on 217 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, United Airlines, flew 1,779 at 85.1% on time.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so Hawaiian on HNL to SFO runs 8 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 79 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
69.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 206 completed flights
Avg delay
54 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.15%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
80.8%
Every carrier on HNL to SFO, 2,476 flights
These figures cover 217 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.
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Carrier by carrier
Hawaiian against every carrier on HNL to SFO
Hawaiian flew 217 of the 2,476 flights on HNL to SFO, about 9% of it. Its 69.4% on time is 11 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 80.8%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 85.1% to Hawaiian at 69.4%.
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 Airlines (this page)thin 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.
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Departure window
When Hawaiian runs best on this route
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 217 flights.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm129 flights70.6%
- 2pm–5pm1 flights—
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am87 flights67.4%
Scale runs 60% to 75%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 11am–2pm window is the strongest at 70.6% on time. The full set of windows spans 3 points.
Across the year
Hawaiian on HNL to SFO through the year
- Jul–Sep 202551 flights90.2%
- Oct–Dec 2025166 flights62.6%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 69.4% on time across 217 flights.
Split by quarter, Hawaiian on HNL to SFO logged 51 flights in Jul–Sep 2025 and 166 flights in Oct–Dec 2025. Fewer than three of those quarters carried the 30 completed flights this site needs before printing a rate, so the 69.4% annual figure is the one to use.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 74.3% on time and Thursday the weakest at 52.9%, a spread of 21 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Hawaiian on HNL to SFO runs when it is late
Most of the lateness is short. 33 of the 63 late arrivals were under half an hour behind, and 13 reached an hour or more.
- 15+ min early26 flights12.6%
- Within 15 min117 flights56.8%
- 15–29 min late33 flights16.0%
- 30–59 min late17 flights8.3%
- 1–2 hours late5 flights2.4%
- 2+ hours late8 flights3.9%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 206 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
15 of 57 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 26% of them. In the other direction, 21 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at SFO.
The worst days
Worst days for Hawaiian on HNL to SFO
The latest arrival of the period was on 15 November 2025, 10 hours 25 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). Three of the five worst days fell in October 2025.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 15 November 2025 | 10 hours 25 minutes | Carrier |
| 17 October 2025 | 3 hours 5 minutes | Carrier |
| 19 December 2025 | 3 hours 2 minutes | Carrier |
| 16 October 2025 | 2 hours 27 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 30 October 2025 | 2 hours 22 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why Hawaiian runs late on this route
Carrier accounts for 76% of the 3,382 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 76%Carrier
- 21%Late-arriving aircraft
- 2%Security
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%National Airspace System
The largest share of delay minutes, 76%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 2,564 of the 3,382 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 3,382 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 4.15%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 25 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
6.3% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last roughly 55 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
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 71.0% on time across 216 flights, within 2 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 217 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking Hawaiian on HNL to SFO
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.15% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you roughly 55 minutes; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 11am–2pm departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 206 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- HNL to SFO, every carrier
- Hawaiian on SFO to HNL, the return leg
- United Airlines on HNL to SFO85.1%
- Alaska Airlines on HNL to SFO69.8%
- Hawaiian Airlines network-wide record
- Daniel K. Inouye International (HNL) delay statistics
- San Francisco International (SFO) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
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.