Carrier route record
ASKOA→SFO
Alaska Airlines · Kailua-Kona to San Francisco
- Flights
- 218
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 20%
- Carriers
- 2
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Alaska Airlines.
Alaska on KOA 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, 6 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 218 flights, with a median arrival 1 minute early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.6%, so Alaska on KOA to SFO runs 6 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 62 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
71.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 217 completed flights
Avg delay
61 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.46%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
83.4%
Every carrier on KOA to SFO, 1,079 flights
These figures cover 218 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
Alaska against every carrier on KOA to SFO
Alaska flew 218 of the 1,079 flights on KOA to SFO, about 20% of it. Its 71.4% on time is 12 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 83.4%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 86.5% to Alaska at 71.4%.
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 861 | 86.5% | 67 min | 1.05% | A |
| Alaska Airlines (this page)thin sample | 218 | 71.4% | 61 min | 0.46% | C+ |
Departure window
When Alaska runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 10 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm25 flights—
- 2pm–5pm127 flights70.1%
- 5pm–8pm46 flights80.4%
- 8pm–5am20 flights—
Scale runs 60% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is the strongest at 80.4% on time. The full set of windows spans 10 points.
Across the year
Alaska on KOA to SFO through the year
- Jul–Sep 202553 flights79.2%
- Oct–Dec 202552 flights69.2%
- Jan–Mar 202652 flights66.7%
- Apr–Jun 202661 flights70.5%
Scale runs 60% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 71.4% on time across 218 flights.
Alaska on KOA to SFO did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 79.2% on time and its weakest Jan–Mar 2026 at 66.7%, a swing of 13 points on roughly 55 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 81.4% on time and Saturday the weakest at 60.8%. 21 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why Alaska runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 63% of the 3,759 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.
- 63%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%Carrier
- 10%National Airspace System
- 0%Extreme weather
63% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 3,759 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 63 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 3,759 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.46%, 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 costs
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 11.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
At 2,368 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 89.9% on time across 218 flights, 19 points above 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 19 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 218 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 Alaska on KOA to SFO
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 218 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 71.4% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 217 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- KOA to SFO, every carrier
- Alaska on SFO to KOA, the return leg
- United Airlines on KOA to SFO86.5%
- Alaska Airlines network-wide record
- San Francisco International (SFO) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.