Route reliability record
SJC→HNL
San Jose to Honolulu
- Flights
- 807
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 2,417 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 50 minutes on average. That rests on 807 SJC to HNL flights, with a median arrival 8 minutes early.
Best time to fly SJC to HNL: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 89.6% of the time and Saturday flights 87.3%, against 80.4% 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
80.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 805 completed flights
Avg delay
51 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.12%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Southwest
75.6% on time across 445 flights
These figures cover 807 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 8 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 SJC to HNL
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hawaiian Airlinesthin sample | 120 | 90.0% | 95 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 242 | 84.3% | 50 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 445 | 75.6% | 46 min | 0.22% | B+ |
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 Jose 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. 3 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 58 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am290 flights89.6%
- 8am–11am337 flights86.6%
- 11am–2pm—
- 2pm–5pm91 flights74.7%
- 5pm–8pm89 flights31.8%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 25% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 31.8% on time, against 89.6% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 337 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter SJC 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 SJC to HNL, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 89.6% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 31.8%, a wide gap of 57.8 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am89.6%
- 8–11am86.6%
- 11am–2pm—
- 2–5pm74.7%
- 5–8pm31.8%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 25% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 37 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.
July is the worst month at 58.1% on time, 37 points below November, the best at 95.4%. 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 93 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 87.3% on time and Wednesday the weakest at 75.0%, a spread of 12 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 45% of the 8,033 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 45%Carrier
- 41%Late-arriving aircraft
- 14%National Airspace System
- 0%Extreme weather
41% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 8,033 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 41 to one. The split is drawn from 8,033 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 45%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 3,579 of the 8,033 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.12%, 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 actually costs
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.5% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
At 2,417 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 81.4% on time across 808 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.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 807 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in HNL after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 807 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 80.4% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 805 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SJC to HNL questions
How often is SJC 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 19.6% of the 807 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 50 minutes on average.
How reliable is SJC to HNL compared with the rest of the country?
80.4% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 3 points in its favour. That is worth a B+ on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on SJC to HNL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.6% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 31.8%, 58 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 July delays on SJC to HNL?
July is the weakest month at 58.1% on time, compared with 95.4% in November. Across the year that is 37 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 SJC — the return legseparate record
- Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International (SJC) delay statistics
- Daniel K. Inouye International (HNL) delay statistics
- Hawaiian Airlines on SJC to HNL90.0%
- Alaska Airlines on SJC to HNL84.3%
- Southwest Airlines on SJC to HNL75.6%
- SJC to SAN, a related route68.3%
- OGG to HNL, a related route84.1%
- SJC to LAX, a related route85.0%
- Hawaiian Airlines on-time record90.0%
- Alaska Airlines on-time record84.3%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record75.6%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. SJC to HNL and HNL to SJC are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed SJC 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.