Route profile
DEN→HNL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Denver to Honolulu, 3,365 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 24% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,879 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
DEN → HNL arrives on time 74.6% of the time; the return trip, HNL → DEN, arrives on time 86.1% of the time, an 11.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DEN → HNL spends 27.6 minutes on the ground on a 3,365-mile trip: 21.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DEN and 6.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at HNL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where DEN to HNL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
Thursday is the day DEN to HNL slips furthest against routes of similar length, 71.0% on time where they average 79.4%, 8.4 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 5.8 points.
In July, DEN to HNL runs 12.1 points below routes of similar length, 61.3% on time to 73.4%. Against all other routes the gap is 8.4 points.
United Airlines’ flights on DEN to HNL arrive on time 74.6% of the time, 6.3 points below the 80.9% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 5.3 points.
DEN to HNL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekday: Thursday | 71.0% | routes of similar length | 79.4% | −8.4 pts | 252 here, 3,458 there |
| Month: July | 61.3% | routes of similar length | 73.4% | −12.1 pts | 230 here, 3,725 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 74.6% | routes of similar length | 80.9% | −6.3 pts | 1,835 here, 3,830 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 3,365 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
57 min late
against a median of 3 min early
Percentiles over 1,879 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at HNL after arriving from DEN.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 42% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 25% | High risk |
| 60 min | 16% | High risk |
| 90 min | 9.4% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.8% | Some risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 1.17% of the time and diverts 1.17% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,835 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 57 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,879 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DEN → HNL flights departing 12–3 PM arrived on time 80.2% of the time, against 66.5% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 13.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 77.5% on time from 404 flights
- 12 PM: 80.6% on time from 723 flights
- 1 PM to 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 66.5% on time from 704 flights
- 5 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why DEN → HNL runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for DEN → HNL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 1,879 | 74.6% | 1.17% | -3 min | 9.6% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 7.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 79.1%
- Feb: no data
- Mar: 75.0%
- Apr: 78.5%
- May: 76.9%
- Jun: 71.8%
- Jul: 61.3%
- Aug: 67.4%
- Sep: no data
- Oct: 81.7%
- Nov: no data
- Dec: 77.1%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 20.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.9% against 74.3% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,879 DEN → HNL flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed