Route reliability record
SLC→HNL
Salt Lake City to Honolulu
- Flights
- 858
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 2,994 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 858 SLC to HNL flights, with a median arrival 4 minutes early.
Best time to fly SLC to HNL: a 11am–2pm departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 79.3% of the time and Wednesday flights 81.1%, against 76.7% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, 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
76.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 844 completed flights
Avg delay
85 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.28%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
Delta
81.0% on time across 492 flights
These figures cover 858 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 4 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.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on SLC 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 492 | 81.0% | 76 min | 1.63% | B |
| Hawaiian Airlinesthin sample | 184 | 80.9% | 152 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 182 | 60.7% | 63 min | 1.65% | D |
Flight by flight
Flights on SLC 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.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
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 858 flights.
- 5am–8am296 flights75.9%
- 8am–11am230 flights74.3%
- 11am–2pm331 flights79.3%
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am1 flights—
Scale runs 65% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The best window here is not the first bank but the 11am–2pm slot at 79.3% on time, ahead of 8am–11am at 74.3%. Where the curve peaks mid-day rather than at dawn, the constraint is usually congestion at one end rather than the aircraft's own rotation. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 331 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 35 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.
February is the weak month at 52.8% on time, against 88.2% in November. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. March was the busiest month here, with 91 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 81.1% on time and Friday the weakest at 72.4%. 9 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 62% of the 17,000 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.
- 62%Carrier
- 22%Late-arriving aircraft
- 11%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 62%, 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 10,000 of the 17,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 16,690 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.28% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.35%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
7.6% 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 an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 2,994 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 82.6% on time across 856 flights, 6 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 6 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 858 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. 858 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 76.7% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 844 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SLC to HNL questions
How often is SLC to HNL delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.3% of the 858 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is SLC to HNL compared with the rest of the country?
76.7% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.6%, a difference of about a point against it. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on SLC to HNL?
The 11am–2pm departure window is the strongest at 79.3% on time. The 8am–11am window is the weakest at 74.3%, 5 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 February delays on SLC to HNL?
February is the weakest month at 52.8% on time, compared with 88.2% in November. Across the year that is 35 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 SLC — the return legseparate record
- Salt Lake City International (SLC) delay statistics
- Daniel K. Inouye International (HNL) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on SLC to HNL81.0%
- Hawaiian Airlines on SLC to HNL80.9%
- Alaska Airlines on SLC to HNL60.7%
- SLC to DEN, a related route77.8%
- OGG to HNL, a related route84.7%
- SLC to PHX, a related route83.9%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record81.0%
- Hawaiian Airlines on-time record80.9%
- Alaska Airlines on-time record60.7%
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
- How to read this site: grades, sample sizes, and honest caveats
Direction matters. SLC to HNL and HNL to SLC are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed SLC 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.