Route reliability record
SFO→HNL
San Francisco to Honolulu
- Flights
- 2,477
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 2,398 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route lands a B+, 3 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 2,477 SFO to HNL flights, of which United Airlines flew 1,779 at 84.5% on time.
Best time to fly SFO to HNL: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 84.8% of the time and Wednesday flights 84.4%, against 80.0% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
80.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,451 completed flights
Avg delay
62 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.97%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
84.5% on time across 1,779 flights
These figures cover 2,477 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.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on SFO to HNL
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 84.5% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 67.1%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 482 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 1,779 | 84.5% | 63 min | 0.11% | B+ |
| Hawaiian Airlinesthin sample | 216 | 71.0% | 68 min | 3.70% | C− |
| Alaska Airlines | 482 | 67.1% | 57 min | 2.90% | C |
The spread between United and Alaska is 17 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 17 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on SFO to HNL
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.
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.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly San Francisco to Honolulu
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 2 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. SFO → HNLSan Francisco to Honolulu | United Airlines | 84.4% | 84.5% | 0.11% | 5am–8am, Tue | UA 1175 09:20 |
| 2. OAK → HNLOakland to Honolulu | Southwest Airlines | 77.0% | 77.0% | 0.00% | 2pm–5pm, Mon | WN 808 12:35 |
| 3. SJC → HNLSan Jose to Honolulu | Southwest Airlines | 75.4% | 75.6% | 0.22% | 8am–11am, Sat | — |
| 4. SFO → HNLSan Francisco to Honolulu | Alaska Airlines | 65.2% | 67.1% | 2.90% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
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 11 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am247 flights84.8%
- 8am–11am731 flights78.8%
- 11am–2pm282 flights81.2%
- 2pm–5pm551 flights79.6%
- 5pm–8pm543 flights80.7%
- 8pm–5am123 flights73.6%
Scale runs 65% to 90%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 84.8% of the time, against 73.6% for the overnight window. That is 11 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 731 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter SFO to HNL 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 SFO to HNL, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 84.8% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 73.6%, a wide gap of 11.2 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am84.8%
- 8–11am78.8%
- 11am–2pm81.2%
- 2–5pm79.6%
- 5–8pm80.7%
- 8pm–5am73.6%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 17 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.
August is the worst month at 72.1% on time, 17 points below November, the best at 88.9%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. July was the busiest month here, with 279 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 84.4% on time and Friday the weakest at 76.6%, a spread of 8 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 53% of the 30,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 53%Carrier
- 32%Late-arriving aircraft
- 15%National Airspace System
- 0%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 53%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 16,000 of the 30,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 30,340 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 84.8% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 0.97% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.08%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
5.5% 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 2,398 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 80.8% on time across 2,476 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 2,477 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 HNL 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. November runs 88.9% on time and August 72.1%, a swing of 17 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 2,451 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SFO to HNL questions
How often is SFO to HNL delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 20.0% of the 2,477 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on SFO to HNL?
United Airlines leads at 84.5% on time across 1,779 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 67.1%, a gap of 17 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 SFO to HNL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 84.8% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 73.6%, 11 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 August delays on SFO to HNL?
August is the weakest month at 72.1% on time, compared with 88.9% in November. Across the year that is 17 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
- HNL to SFO — the return legseparate record
- San Francisco International (SFO) delay statistics
- Daniel K. Inouye International (HNL) delay statistics
- United Airlines on SFO to HNL84.5%
- Hawaiian Airlines on SFO to HNL71.0%
- Alaska Airlines on SFO to HNL67.1%
- SFO to LAX, a related route70.9%
- OGG to HNL, a related route84.1%
- SFO to SEA, a related route72.3%
- United Airlines on-time record84.5%
- Hawaiian Airlines on-time record71.0%
- Alaska Airlines on-time record67.1%
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. SFO to HNL and HNL to SFO are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed SFO to HNL’s on-time badge on your site
Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.
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.