Route reliability record
LAX→LIH
Los Angeles to Lihue
- Flights
- 1,605
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 2,615 mi
- Carriers
- 6
This route lands a B+, 6 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by roughly 55 minutes on average. That rests on 1,605 LAX to LIH flights, of which United Airlines flew 377 at 94.7% on time.
Best time to fly LAX to LIH: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 93.0% of the time and Tuesday flights 85.2%, against 82.9% for the route overall.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 94.7% on time across 377 flights.
Key figures
On time
82.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,588 completed flights
Avg delay
54 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.81%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
94.7% on time across 377 flights
These figures cover 1,605 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 8 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
Which airline is most reliable on LAX to LIH
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 94.7% of the time; American Airlines manages 75.1%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 446 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 23 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| United Airlines | 377 | 94.7% | 44 min | 0.80% | A+ |
| Hawaiian Airlinesthin sample | 122 | 89.3% | 40 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 365 | 82.0% | 79 min | 1.10% | B |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 272 | 76.5% | 46 min | 1.10% | B |
| American Airlines | 446 | 75.1% | 47 min | 0.67% | B+ |
The spread between United and American is 20 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 20 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on LAX to LIH
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.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Los Angeles to Lihue
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. LAX → LIHLos Angeles to Lihue | United Airlines | 93.9% | 94.7% | 0.80% | 8am–11am, Tue | UA 1295 08:35 |
| 2. LAX → LIHLos Angeles to Lihue | Delta Air Lines | 81.1% | 82.0% | 1.10% | 2pm–5pm, Tue | DL 428 15:45 |
| 3. LAX → LIHLos Angeles to Lihue | American Airlines | 74.6% | 75.1% | 0.67% | 8am–11am, Mon | AA 119 09:12 |
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 16 points, against 20 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am71 flights93.0%
- 8am–11am872 flights83.8%
- 11am–2pm110 flights78.9%
- 2pm–5pm389 flights82.9%
- 5pm–8pm163 flights76.9%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 70% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 93.0% of the time, against 76.9% for the evening window. That is 16 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 872 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter LAX to LIH 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 LAX to LIH, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 93.0% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 76.9%, a wide gap of 16.1 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am93.0%
- 8–11am83.8%
- 11am–2pm78.9%
- 2–5pm82.9%
- 5–8pm76.9%
- 8pm–5am—
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 19 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 92.0% 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 201 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 85.2% on time and Friday the weakest at 81.2%, a spread of 4 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 58% of the 15,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 58%Carrier
- 25%Late-arriving aircraft
- 14%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 58%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 8,519 of the 15,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 14,573 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.81%, 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 actually costs
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.2% 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 2,615 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 83.7% on time across 1,605 flights, within about a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 1,605 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 LIH 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 92.0% on time and April 73.2%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of April before you think about anything else. 1,588 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
LAX to LIH questions
How often is LAX to LIH delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 17.1% of the 1,605 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by roughly 55 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on LAX to LIH?
United Airlines leads at 94.7% on time across 377 flights. American Airlines is at the other end on 75.1%, a gap of 20 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 LAX to LIH?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 93.0% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 76.9%, 16 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 April delays on LAX to LIH?
April is the weakest month at 73.2% on time, compared with 92.0% in September. Across the year that is 19 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
- LIH to LAX — the return legseparate record
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- United Airlines on LAX to LIH94.7%
- Hawaiian Airlines on LAX to LIH89.3%
- Delta Air Lines on LAX to LIH82.0%
- Alaska Airlines on LAX to LIH76.5%
- American Airlines on LAX to LIH75.1%
- LAX to SFO, a related route60.1%
- HNL to LIH, a related route83.7%
- LAX to JFK, a related route77.5%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record100.0%
- United Airlines on-time record94.7%
- Hawaiian Airlines on-time record89.3%
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. LAX to LIH and LIH to LAX are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.