Carrier route record
ASLIH→SFO
Alaska Airlines · Lihue to San Francisco
- Flights
- 198
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 23%
- Carriers
- 2
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Alaska Airlines.
Alaska on LIH to SFO sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 6 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land about 55 minutes behind schedule. That rests on 198 flights, with a median arrival 2 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.6%, so Alaska on LIH to SFO runs 6 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 63 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
71.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 195 completed flights
Avg delay
54 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.52%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
86.4%
Every carrier on LIH to SFO, 853 flights
These figures cover 198 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
Alaska against every carrier on LIH to SFO
Alaska flew 198 of the 853 flights on LIH to SFO, about 23% of it. Its 71.3% on time is 15 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 86.4%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 90.9% to Alaska at 71.3%.
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 655 | 90.9% | 67 min | 0.61% | A+ |
| Alaska Airlines (this page)thin sample | 198 | 71.3% | 54 min | 1.52% | C |
Departure window
When Alaska 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 198 flights.
There are not enough flights in each departure window to split Alaska's LIH to SFO record by time of day without the percentages moving on noise. The headline rate of 71.3% is the reliable figure here.
Across the year
Alaska on LIH to SFO through the year
- Jul–Sep 202539 flights76.9%
- Oct–Dec 202546 flights65.9%
- Jan–Mar 202652 flights70.6%
- Apr–Jun 202661 flights72.1%
Scale runs 55% 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 71.3% on time across 198 flights.
Alaska on LIH to SFO did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 76.9% on time and its weakest Oct–Dec 2025 at 65.9%, a swing of 11 points on roughly 50 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, Saturday is the strongest day at 80.6% on time and Monday the weakest at 63.5%. 17 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why Alaska runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 73% of the 3,044 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.
- 73%Late-arriving aircraft
- 19%Carrier
- 7%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
73% 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 3,044 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 73 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 3,044 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.52% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
8.2% 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 55 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 2,446 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 89.8% on time across 197 flights, 19 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 19 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 198 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 Alaska on LIH to SFO
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 198 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 71.3% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 195 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
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.