Carrier route record

HASFO→HNL

Hawaiian Airlines · San Francisco to Honolulu

Flights: 323
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Share of route: 13%
Carriers: 3

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

Hawaiian on SFO to HNL sits in the middle of the pack with a C−. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 8 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 323 flights, with a median arrival 4 minutes late.

The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.6%, so Hawaiian on SFO to HNL runs 8 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 77 extra late arrivals.

On time

69.9%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 312 completed flights

Avg delay

60 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

3.10%

National rate is 1.81%

Whole route

81.4%

Every carrier on SFO to HNL, 2,426 flights

These figures cover 323 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. On-time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the same threshold the Department of Transportation uses in its own reports. Cancelled and diverted flights are excluded from the on-time rate and counted separately, which is why the cancellation column matters on its own.

Carrier by carrier

Hawaiian against every carrier on SFO to HNL

Hawaiian flew 323 of the 2,426 flights on SFO to HNL, about 13% of it. Its 69.9% on time is 12 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 81.4%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 86.5% to Alaska at 66.3%. One of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.

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.

On-time performance by carrier on SFO to HNL
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
United Airlines	1,742	86.5%	72 min	0.29%	A+
Hawaiian Airlines (this page)thin sample	323	69.9%	60 min	3.10%	C−
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	361	66.3%	51 min	2.22%	C

Departure window

When Hawaiian runs best on this route

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 12 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am66 flights78.0%
8am–11am126 flights66.1%
11am–2pm—
2pm–5pm—
5pm–8pm22 flights—
8pm–5am109 flights73.8%

Scale runs 60% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 78.0% of the time, against 66.1% for the morning window. That is 12 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 126 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

Hawaiian on SFO to HNL through the year

Jul–Sep 2025158 flights75.0%
Oct–Dec 2025165 flights64.7%

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 69.9% on time across 323 flights.

Split by quarter, Hawaiian on SFO to HNL logged 158 flights in Jul–Sep 2025 and 165 flights in Oct–Dec 2025. Fewer than three of those quarters carried the 30 completed flights this site needs before printing a rate, so the 69.9% annual figure is the one to use.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 75.0% on time and Monday the weakest at 61.4%. 14 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Delay causes

Why Hawaiian runs late on this route

One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 93% of the 5,638 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
93%
Late-arriving aircraft
6%
Extreme weather
1%
Security
0%
National Airspace System
0%

The largest share of delay minutes, 93%, 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 5,228 of the 5,638 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 5,638 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations run at 3.10%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.

Connections and stage length

What a delay here costs

7.1% 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 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 67.0% on time across 323 flights, within 3 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 323 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 Hawaiian on SFO to HNL

Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.10% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 312 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