Route profile
HNL→DTW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Honolulu to Detroit, 4,475 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – August 2026
Better than 70% of comparable major US routes (4,629 compared)
Calculated from 1,003 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
HNL → DTW arrives on time 81.2% of the time; the return trip, DTW → HNL, arrives on time 81.7% of the time.
HNL → DTW spends 29.9 minutes on the ground on a 4,475-mile trip: 20.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at HNL and 9.8 minutes from touchdown to gate at DTW.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – August 2026
What sets this route apart
Where HNL to DTW differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – August 2026.
HNL to DTW holds up on Fridays better than routes of similar length do: 85.9% on time to their 78.9%, a 7 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 9.9 points.
Delta Air Lines’ flights on HNL to DTW arrive on time 81.2% of the time, 2.6 points below the 83.8% it manages on its routes of similar length.
HNL to DTW against comparable routes
July 2023 – August 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekday: Friday | 85.9% | routes of similar length | 78.9% | +7.0 pts | 156 here, 2,331 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 81.2% | routes of similar length | 83.8% | −2.6 pts | 991 here, 7,586 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 4,475 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.
HNL to DTW in context
This route against HNL and DTW as a whole, against similar routes from HNL, and against its own first year, July 2023 – August 2026.
Leaving HNL, HNL to DTW is on time 81.2% of the time, 4 points worse than the airport’s other departures at HNL (85.2%, from 188,161 flights).
Airport comparisons take this route’s flights out of the airport total. Length means within 15% of this route’s distance, with at least 3 other routes from the same origin. On-time gaps are stated at 2 points and 2 standard errors, cancellation gaps at 0.5 points and 2 standard errors, and every group needs 750 flights. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – August 2026
34 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 1,003 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DTW after arriving from HNL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 35% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.0% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.8% | Low 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 0.90% of the time and diverts 0.30% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 991 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 34 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,003 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Why HNL → DTW runs late
July 2023 – August 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
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 HNL → DTW. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on HNL → DTW, at 61.3%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,003 | 81.2% | 0.90% | -7 min | 6.2% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL310 Delta Air Lines | 2:45 PM | 607 | 82.5% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Friday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 8.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – August 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-09 to 2026-08), on-time arrivals averaged 81.7% against 83.0% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,003 HNL → DTW flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – August 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