Route reliability record
KOA→LAX
Kailua-Kona to Los Angeles
- Flights
- 1,601
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 2,504 mi
- Carriers
- 5
This route earns an A. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 9 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs a little over an hour. That rests on 1,601 KOA to LAX flights, of which United Airlines flew 489 at 91.5% on time.
Best time to fly KOA to LAX: a 8pm–5am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.9% of the time and Wednesday flights 91.2%, against 86.5% for the route overall.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 91.5% on time across 489 flights.
Key figures
On time
86.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,578 completed flights
Avg delay
72 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.44%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
91.5% on time across 489 flights
These figures cover 1,601 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 11 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.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on KOA to LAX
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 91.5% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 79.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 374 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 489 | 91.5% | 77 min | 1.02% | A |
| Delta Air Lines | 365 | 90.4% | 50 min | 3.01% | A− |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 350 | 83.2% | 116 min | 1.14% | B |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 23 | 82.6% | 48 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 374 | 79.5% | 48 min | 0.80% | B+ |
Delta Air Lines cancels 3.0% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Flight by flight
Flights on KOA to LAX
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.
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Kailua-Kona to Los Angeles
Every airline on this route, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time, with its best departure time and most punctual flight number. No nearby airport pair beat these.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. KOA → LAXKailua-Kona to Los Angeles | United Airlines | 90.6% | 91.5% | 1.02% | 8pm–5am, Tue | UA 2372 12:57 |
| 2. KOA → LAXKailua-Kona to Los Angeles | Delta Air Lines | 87.7% | 90.4% | 3.01% | 8pm–5am, Tue | DL 486 21:30 |
| 3. KOA → LAXKailua-Kona to Los Angeles | Alaska Airlines | 78.9% | 79.5% | 0.80% | 11am–2pm, Sat | AS 561 14:36 |
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 11 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am18 flights—
- 11am–2pm387 flights85.8%
- 2pm–5pm589 flights81.3%
- 5pm–8pm24 flights—
- 8pm–5am583 flights91.9%
Scale runs 75% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The overnight block holds up unusually well at 91.9% on time across 583 flights. Red-eyes fly into empty airspace and empty gates, and they are the first rotation of the aircraft's day rather than the last. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 589 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter KOA to LAX 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 KOA to LAX, the best departure window is 8pm–5am at 91.9% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 81.3%, a wide gap of 10.6 points. All US flights leaving 8pm–5am ran 70.1%.
- 5–8am—
- 8–11am—
- 11am–2pm85.8%
- 2–5pm81.3%
- 5–8pm—
- 8pm–5am91.9%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 13 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 93.3% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. July was the busiest month here, with 167 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 91.2% on time and Sunday the weakest at 84.1%, a spread of 7 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 43% of the 15,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%Carrier
- 36%Late-arriving aircraft
- 13%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
36% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 15,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 to one. The split is drawn from 15,411 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 43%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 6,573 of the 15,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.44% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.6% 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 2,504 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 81.8% on time across 1,601 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 1,601 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 LAX 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 93.3% on time and March 80.6%, a swing of 13 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of March before you think about anything else. 1,578 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
KOA to LAX questions
How often is KOA to LAX delayed?
About one flight in seven arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 13.5% of the 1,601 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on KOA to LAX?
United Airlines leads at 91.5% on time across 489 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 79.5%, a gap of 12 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 KOA to LAX?
The 8pm–5am departure window is the strongest at 91.9% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 81.3%, 11 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 KOA to LAX?
March is the weakest month at 80.6% on time, compared with 93.3% in September. Across the year that is 13 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 KOA — the return legseparate record
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- United Airlines on KOA to LAX91.5%
- Delta Air Lines on KOA to LAX90.4%
- American Airlines on KOA to LAX83.2%
- Alaska Airlines on KOA to LAX79.5%
- KOA to HNL, a related route83.8%
- SFO to LAX, a related route70.9%
- KOA to OGG, a related route86.9%
- United Airlines on-time record91.5%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record90.4%
- American Airlines on-time record83.2%
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. KOA to LAX and LAX to KOA are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed KOA to LAX’s on-time badge on your site
Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.
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.