Carrier route record
AALAX→LIH
American Airlines · Los Angeles to Lihue
- Flights
- 446
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 28%
- Carriers
- 6
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on LAX to LIH 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 446 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, United Airlines, flew 377 at 94.7% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate American on LAX to LIH from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
75.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 441 completed flights
Avg delay
47 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.67%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
82.9%
Every carrier on LAX to LIH, 1,605 flights
These figures cover 446 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 5 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
American against every carrier on LAX to LIH
American flew 446 of the 1,605 flights on LAX to LIH, about 28% of it. Its 75.1% on time is 8 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 82.9%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of six carriers on the route, where the range runs from Southwest at 100.0% to American at 75.1%. Three 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 94.7% of the time; Delta Air Lines manages 82.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 365 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 (this page) | 446 | 75.1% | 47 min | 0.67% | B+ |
The spread between United and Delta 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 LIH
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.
Departure window
When American runs best on this route
Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 446 flights.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am259 flights77.8%
- 11am–2pm91 flights74.4%
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm96 flights68.1%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 60% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 77.8% of the time, against 68.1% for the evening window. That is 10 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 259 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on LAX to LIH through the year
- Jul–Sep 202530 flights—
- Oct–Dec 202577 flights76.6%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights74.2%
- Apr–Jun 2026132 flights75.8%
- Jul–Sep 2026117 flights71.1%
Scale runs 65% to 80%. 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 75.1% on time across 446 flights.
Quarter by quarter American on LAX to LIH held fairly steady: 76.6% in Oct–Dec 2025, 74.2% in Jan–Mar 2026, 75.8% in Apr–Jun 2026 and 71.1% in Jul–Sep 2026. A spread of 6 points is about what a sample of this size moves on its own, so the annual figure is a fair summary.
Across the week, Monday is the strongest day at 84.4% on time and Saturday the weakest at 65.2%, a spread of 19 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on LAX to LIH runs when it is late
American on LAX to LIH often beats the schedule: 118 of 441 completed flights, 27%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. Most of the lateness is short. 55 of the 110 late arrivals were under half an hour behind, and 22 reached an hour or more.
- 15+ min early118 flights26.8%
- Within 15 min213 flights48.3%
- 15–29 min late55 flights12.5%
- 30–59 min late33 flights7.5%
- 1–2 hours late12 flights2.7%
- 2+ hours late10 flights2.3%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 441 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
25 of 102 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 25% of them. In the other direction, 33 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at LIH.
The worst days
Worst days for American on LAX to LIH
The latest arrival of the period was on 15 August 2026, 4 hours 16 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). On three of the five worst days the largest share was filed as a late-arriving aircraft.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 15 August 2026 | 4 hours 16 minutes | Carrier |
| 3 July 2026 | 3 hours 40 minutes | Carrier |
| 5 December 2025 | 3 hours 23 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 20 April 2026 | 3 hours | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 14 March 2026 | 2 hours 43 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 5,170 reported delay minutes.
- 41%Late-arriving aircraft
- 39%Carrier
- 20%National Airspace System
41% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 5,170 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 41 to one. The split is drawn from 5,170 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 39%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 2,005 of the 5,170 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.67%, 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
5.0% 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 2,615 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 84.7% on time across 446 flights, 10 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 10 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 446 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 LIH
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 446 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 75.1% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 441 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- LAX to LIH, every carrier
- American on LIH to LAX, the return leg
- 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 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, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.