Carrier route record

DLLAX→LIH

Delta Air Lines · Los Angeles to Lihue

Flights: 365
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Share of route: 24%
Carriers: 6

Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Delta Air Lines.

Delta on LAX to LIH lands a B, 6 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 365 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, United Airlines, flew 379 at 92.6% on time.

Set against the rest of the country, Delta's LAX to LIH record is 6 points better than the US average of 77.6%. That gap is worth roughly 63 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.

On time

83.9%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 361 completed flights

Avg delay

82 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.10%

National rate is 1.81%

Whole route

84.1%

Every carrier on LAX to LIH, 1,539 flights

These figures cover 365 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 12 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

Delta against every carrier on LAX to LIH

Delta flew 365 of the 1,539 flights on LAX to LIH, about 24% of it. Its 83.9% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 84.1%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number four of six carriers on the route, where the range runs from Southwest at 95.7% to American at 77.6%. 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 92.6% of the time; American Airlines manages 77.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 391 flights means less than a ten-point one.

On-time performance by carrier on LAX to LIH
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlinesthin sample	23	95.7%	176 min	0.00%	A+
United Airlines	379	92.6%	47 min	0.00%	A+
Hawaiian Airlinesthin sample	184	85.2%	51 min	0.00%	A+
Delta Air Lines (this page)	365	83.9%	82 min	1.10%	B
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	197	78.4%	36 min	1.02%	B
American Airlines	391	77.6%	48 min	0.00%	B+

The spread between United and American is 15 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 15 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Flight by flight

Delta flight numbers on LAX to LIH

DL 42814:2583.9% · 365 flights

Departure window

When Delta 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 365 flights.

There are not enough flights in each departure window to split Delta's LAX to LIH record by time of day without the percentages moving on noise. The headline rate of 83.9% is the reliable figure here.

Across the year

Delta on LAX to LIH through the year

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.May best, April worst

May is the best month on the calendar at 96.8% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. March was the busiest month here, with 31 flights.

Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 88.5% on time and Friday the weakest at 78.8%. 10 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Delay causes

Why Delta runs late on this route

One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 65% of the 4,751 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.

Carrier
65%
Late-arriving aircraft
26%
National Airspace System
10%

The largest share of delay minutes, 65%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 3,075 of the 4,751 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 4,751 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations sit at 1.10% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.

Connections and stage length

What a delay here costs

7.8% 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 a little over an hour, 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 91.3% on time across 365 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. 365 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 Delta on LAX to LIH

Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 365 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 83.9% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 361 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Where to go next

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.

Key figures