Route profile
HNL→JFK
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Honolulu to New York, 4,983 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 75% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,098 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
HNL → JFK arrives on time 79.4% of the time; the return trip, JFK → HNL, arrives on time 74.0% of the time, a 5.4-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
HNL → JFK spends 32.2 minutes on the ground on a 4,983-mile trip: 18.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at HNL and 13.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at JFK.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
The airline matters unusually much on this route, a wider carrier-to-carrier gap than 97% of 2,692 comparable routes.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 91.4% of the time, against 68.7% for Hawaiian Airlines, flying the exact same route.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 2,692 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where HNL to JFK differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
HNL to JFK struggles most at 4 PM: 71.2% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 10.2 points behind the 81.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour.
Tuesday is the day HNL to JFK slips furthest against routes of similar length, 77.6% on time where they average 84.7%, 7.1 points lower.
In December, HNL to JFK runs 8.3 points below routes of similar length, 71.2% on time to 79.5%. Against all other routes the gap is 7.6 points.
Delta Air Lines does better on HNL to JFK than on its routes of similar length: 91.4% on time here, 81.3% there, 10.1 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 9.9 points.
HNL to JFK against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 71.2% | routes of similar length | 81.4% | −10.2 pts | 371 here, 812 there |
| Weekday: Tuesday | 77.6% | routes of similar length | 84.7% | −7.1 pts | 246 here, 1,228 there |
| Month: December | 71.2% | routes of similar length | 79.5% | −8.3 pts | 170 here, 913 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 91.4% | routes of similar length | 81.3% | +10.1 pts | 952 here, 5,161 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 4,983 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
32 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 2,098 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at JFK after arriving from HNL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 39% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 20% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.5% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.3% | 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 0.81% of the time and diverts 0.71% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,066 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 32 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,098 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Why HNL → JFK 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 HNL → JFK. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 974 | 91.4% | 1.33% | -16 min | 2.6% |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 915 | 68.7% | 0.11% | 5 min | 6.5% |
| Alaska Airlines | 209 | 71.6% | 1.44% | -3 min | 5.4% |
Delta Air Lines flew 46.4% of the 2,098 flights listed. Alaska Airlines cancelled 1.44% of its flights here against 0.11% for Hawaiian Airlines.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 22.7 percentage points more often than Hawaiian Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Thursday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 7.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 77.8%
- Feb: 81.2%
- Mar: 74.1%
- Apr: 77.7%
- May: 77.4%
- Jun: 85.5%
- Jul: 79.6%
- Aug: 84.5%
- Sep: 81.8%
- Oct: 80.4%
- Nov: 82.7%
- Dec: 71.2%
December is historically the weakest month and June the strongest, a spread of 14.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 81.5% against 78.0% in the 12 months before — improving by 3.5 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,098 HNL → JFK 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