Carrier route record

WNSJC→HNL

Southwest Airlines · San Jose to Honolulu

Flights: 445
Period: September 2025 to August 2026
Share of route: 55%
Carriers: 3

Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Southwest Airlines.

Southwest on SJC to HNL sits in the middle of the pack with a B+. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land roughly 45 minutes behind schedule. That rests on 445 flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate Southwest on SJC to HNL from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.

On time

75.6%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 443 completed flights

Avg delay

46 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.22%

National rate is 1.89%

Whole route

80.4%

Every carrier on SJC to HNL, 807 flights

These figures cover 445 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 7 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.

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Carrier by carrier

Southwest against every carrier on SJC to HNL

Southwest flew 445 of the 807 flights on SJC to HNL, most of the route. Its 75.6% on time is 5 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 80.4%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Hawaiian at 90.0% to Southwest at 75.6%. Two 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 SJC to HNL
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 (this page)	445	75.6%	46 min	0.22%	B+

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Departure window

When Southwest runs best on this route

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 59 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.

5am–8am81 flights90.0%
8am–11am184 flights90.8%
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 90.8% for the 8am–11am 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 184 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

Southwest on SJC to HNL through the year

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.November best, August worst

August is the worst month at 51.5% on time, 46 points below November, the best at 97.1%. 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 62 flights.

Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 84.8% on time and Wednesday the weakest at 67.2%, a spread of 18 points.

Arrival by arrival

How late Southwest on SJC to HNL runs when it is late

Southwest on SJC to HNL often beats the schedule: 139 of 443 completed flights, 31%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 108 late arrivals split 46 under half an hour, 38 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 24 an hour or more.

15+ min early139 flights31.4%
Within 15 min196 flights44.2%
15–29 min late46 flights10.4%
30–59 min late38 flights8.6%
1–2 hours late17 flights3.8%
2+ hours late7 flights1.6%

Scale runs 0% to 100%.

Share of 443 completed flights by arrival against schedule.

18 of 109 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 17% of them. 17 flights left on time and still arrived late.

The worst days

Worst days for Southwest on SJC to HNL

The latest arrival of the period was on 23 May 2026, 4 hours 24 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on four of the five worst days.

The latest arrivals of Southwest on SJC to HNL in the period
Date	Arrived late by	Largest filed cause
23 May 2026	4 hours 24 minutes	Carrier
24 July 2026	2 hours 47 minutes	Carrier
25 June 2026	2 hours 21 minutes	Carrier
20 July 2026	2 hours 21 minutes	Carrier
24 June 2026	2 hours 10 minutes	Late-arriving aircraft

Delay causes

Why Southwest runs late on this route

Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 47% of the 4,998 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.

Late-arriving aircraft
47%
Carrier
44%
National Airspace System
10%

47% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 4,998 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 47 to one. The split is drawn from 4,998 reported delay minutes.

The largest share of delay minutes, 44%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 2,183 of the 4,998 delay minutes reported here.

Cancellations are rare at 0.22%, 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 costs

5.4% 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 roughly 45 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.

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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 88.5% on time across 445 flights, 13 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 13 points of difference.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 445 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 Southwest on SJC to HNL

Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 445 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 75.6% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 443 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Where to go next

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated 22 October 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures