Carrier route record
WNLAX→HNL
Southwest Airlines · Los Angeles to Honolulu
- Flights
- 516
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 9%
- Carriers
- 6
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Southwest Airlines.
Southwest on LAX to HNL sits in the middle of the pack with a B+. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land roughly 45 minutes behind schedule. That rests on 516 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, United Airlines, flew 1,294 at 84.0% on time.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the five carriers covered here at 84.0% on time across 1,294 flights.
Key figures
On time
75.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 515 completed flights
Avg delay
47 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.19%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
76.2%
Every carrier on LAX to HNL, 5,540 flights
These figures cover 516 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 3 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
Southwest against every carrier on LAX to HNL
Southwest flew 516 of the 5,540 flights on LAX to HNL, about 9% of it. Its 75.5% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 76.2%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number four of six carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 84.0% to Alaska at 65.9%.
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 84.0% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 65.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,054 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 1,294 | 84.0% | 91 min | 0.31% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,095 | 80.6% | 83 min | 0.27% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 1,182 | 76.2% | 61 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 516 | 75.5% | 47 min | 0.19% | B+ |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 399 | 66.6% | 99 min | 1.75% | C |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,054 | 65.9% | 67 min | 1.23% | C |
The spread between United and Alaska is 18 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 18 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
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Departure window
When Southwest runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 43 points, against 18 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am276 flights92.8%
- 8am–11am61 flights72.1%
- 11am–2pm—
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm179 flights50.0%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 40% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 50.0% on time, against 92.8% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 276 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Southwest on LAX to HNL through the year
July is the worst month at 53.2% on time, 47 points below November, the best at 100.0%. 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 62 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 84.9% on time and Thursday the weakest at 68.9%, a spread of 16 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Southwest on LAX to HNL runs when it is late
Southwest on LAX to HNL often beats the schedule: 164 of 515 completed flights, 32%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 126 late arrivals split 52 under half an hour, 41 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 33 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early164 flights31.8%
- Within 15 min225 flights43.7%
- 15–29 min late52 flights10.1%
- 30–59 min late41 flights8.0%
- 1–2 hours late28 flights5.4%
- 2+ hours late5 flights1.0%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 515 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
A late pushback is often recovered here: of 154 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, 50 still arrived on time. 22 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for Southwest on LAX to HNL
The latest arrival of the period was on 18 April 2026, 4 hours 21 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on four of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 18 April 2026 | 4 hours 21 minutes | Carrier |
| 20 October 2025 | 3 hours 19 minutes | Carrier |
| 21 May 2026 | 2 hours 22 minutes | Carrier |
| 16 August 2026 | 2 hours 16 minutes | Carrier |
| 23 August 2026 | 2 hours 3 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why Southwest runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 48% of the 5,853 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 48%Late-arriving aircraft
- 39%Carrier
- 13%National Airspace System
48% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 5,853 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 48 to one. The split is drawn from 5,853 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 39%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 2,295 of the 5,853 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.19%, below the national 1.89% 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
6.4% 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 45 minutes, 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 88.5% on time across 516 flights, 13 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 13 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 516 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 Southwest on LAX to HNL
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 516 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 75.5% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 515 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- LAX to HNL, every carrier
- Southwest on HNL to LAX, the return leg
- United Airlines on LAX to HNL84.0%
- Delta Air Lines on LAX to HNL80.6%
- American Airlines on LAX to HNL76.2%
- Hawaiian Airlines on LAX to HNL66.6%
- Alaska Airlines on LAX to HNL65.9%
- Southwest Airlines network-wide record
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- Daniel K. Inouye International (HNL) delay statistics
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.