Carrier route record
AALAX→KOA
American Airlines · Los Angeles to Kailua-Kona
- Flights
- 350
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 22%
- Carriers
- 5
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on LAX to KOA lands a B+, level with the national rate of 77.6%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 350 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, United Airlines, flew 494 at 89.1% on time.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 89.1% on time across 494 flights.
Key figures
On time
76.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 347 completed flights
Avg delay
61 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.29%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
81.8%
Every carrier on LAX to KOA, 1,606 flights
These figures cover 350 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 7 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.
Carrier by carrier
American against every carrier on LAX to KOA
American flew 350 of the 1,606 flights on LAX to KOA, about 22% of it. Its 76.9% on time is 5 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 81.8%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number four of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from Southwest at 95.7% to Alaska at 76.4%. One of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 89.1% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 76.4%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 23 | 95.7% | 23 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| United Airlines | 494 | 89.1% | 41 min | 0.81% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 365 | 81.1% | 56 min | 1.37% | B |
| American Airlines (this page)thin sample | 350 | 76.9% | 61 min | 0.29% | B+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 374 | 76.4% | 42 min | 1.07% | B |
The spread between United and Alaska is 13 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 13 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
American flight numbers on LAX to KOA
Departure window
When American runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 15 points, against 13 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am72 flights67.6%
- 11am–2pm210 flights78.5%
- 2pm–5pm68 flights82.1%
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 60% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The best window here is not the first bank but the 2pm–5pm slot at 82.1% on time, ahead of 8am–11am at 67.6%. Where the curve peaks mid-day rather than at dawn, the constraint is usually congestion at one end rather than the aircraft's own rotation. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 210 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on LAX to KOA through the year
- Jul–Sep 202592 flights83.7%
- Oct–Dec 202577 flights80.5%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights78.7%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights65.2%
Scale runs 55% to 90%. 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 76.9% on time across 350 flights.
American on LAX to KOA did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 83.7% on time and its weakest Apr–Jun 2026 at 65.2%, a swing of 19 points on roughly 88 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, Monday is the strongest day at 80.8% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.2%. 10 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 47% of the 4,890 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.
- 47%Late-arriving aircraft
- 29%Carrier
- 24%National Airspace System
47% 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 4,890 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 47 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 4,890 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.29%, 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
6.3% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
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 83.8% on time across 350 flights, 7 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 7 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 350 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 American on LAX to KOA
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 350 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 76.9% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 347 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- LAX to KOA, every carrier
- American on KOA to LAX, the return leg
- United Airlines on LAX to KOA89.1%
- Delta Air Lines on LAX to KOA81.1%
- Alaska Airlines on LAX to KOA76.4%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
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.