Route profile
HNL→SFO
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Honolulu to San Francisco, 2,398 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 69% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,806 flights. How this is calculated
HNL → SFO arrives on time 81.5% of the time; the return trip, SFO → HNL, arrives on time 80.0% of the time.
HNL → SFO spends 28.0 minutes on the ground on a 2,398-mile trip: 19.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at HNL and 8.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at SFO.
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 98% of 2,692 comparable routes.
United Airlines arrived on time 87.4% of the time, against 62.4% 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 SFO differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
HNL to SFO is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 10 AM: 94.3% arrive on time, 16.4 points ahead of the 77.9% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.6 points.
HNL to SFO struggles most at 12 PM: 67.4% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 10 points behind the 77.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12 points.
July is kinder to HNL to SFO than to routes of similar length: 81.2% on time against 70.2%, 11 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 11.5 points.
Hawaiian Airlines’ flights on HNL to SFO arrive on time 62.4% of the time, 8.7 points below the 71.1% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 9.7 points.
United Airlines does better on HNL to SFO than on its routes of similar length: 87.4% on time here, 81.1% there, 6.3 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 7.5 points.
HNL to SFO against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 10 AM departures | 94.3% | routes of similar length | 77.9% | +16.4 pts | 140 here, 52,435 there |
| Hour: 12 PM departures | 67.4% | routes of similar length | 77.4% | −10.0 pts | 570 here, 47,724 there |
| Month: July | 81.2% | routes of similar length | 70.2% | +11.0 pts | 1,029 here, 129,161 there |
| Airline: Hawaiian Airlines | 62.4% | routes of similar length | 71.1% | −8.7 pts | 1,160 here, 22,324 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 87.4% | routes of similar length | 81.1% | +6.3 pts | 5,319 here, 235,937 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 2,398 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.
Why HNL → SFO flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
HNL → SFO cancelled 98 of 7,806 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 80. The reason filed most often was the airline, 93.9% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 85 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 98 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
92 cancellations, 93.9% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
4 cancellations, 4.1% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
2 cancellations, 2.0% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
98 coded cancellations were recorded on HNL → SFO; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
31 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 7,806 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SFO after arriving from HNL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 35% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 10% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.8% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 3.1% | 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 1.26% of the time and diverts 0.13% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,698 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 31 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,806 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
HNL → SFO flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 91.7% of the time, against 71.2% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 20.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 90.8% on time from 765 flights
- 8 AM: 93.1% on time from 392 flights
- 9 AM: 95.4% on time from 350 flights
- 10 AM: 94.3% on time from 140 flights
- 11 AM: 87.7% on time from 417 flights
- 12 PM: 67.4% on time from 603 flights
- 1 PM: 70.6% on time from 1,263 flights
- 2 PM: 75.2% on time from 723 flights
- 3 PM: 72.5% on time from 483 flights
- 4 PM: 71.0% on time from 386 flights
- 5 PM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 78.7% on time from 174 flights
- 10 PM: 90.0% on time from 948 flights
- 11 PM: 87.3% on time from 1,138 flights
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why HNL → SFO 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
screening or terminal security incidents
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for HNL → SFO. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
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 | 5,363 | 87.4% | 0.69% | -10 min | 3.8% |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,237 | 73.7% | 1.46% | -1 min | 6.2% |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 1,206 | 62.4% | 3.57% | 8 min | 8.6% |
United Airlines flew 68.7% of the 7,806 flights listed. Hawaiian Airlines cancelled 3.57% of its flights here against 0.69% for United Airlines.
United Airlines arrived on time 25.0 percentage points more often than Hawaiian Airlines on this route.
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
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 4.6 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.2%
- Feb: 81.5%
- Mar: 77.3%
- Apr: 81.8%
- May: 79.0%
- Jun: 77.8%
- Jul: 81.2%
- Aug: 82.9%
- Sep: 84.0%
- Oct: 83.2%
- Nov: 85.7%
- Dec: 83.1%
March is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 8.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 82.8% from 250 flights
- August 2023: 85.0% from 250 flights
- September 2023: 82.2% from 197 flights
- October 2023: 84.7% from 230 flights
- November 2023: 94.3% from 232 flights
- December 2023: 86.7% from 218 flights
- January 2024: 85.2% from 198 flights
- February 2024: 79.8% from 188 flights
- March 2024: 81.5% from 219 flights
- April 2024: 81.3% from 211 flights
- May 2024: 73.5% from 199 flights
- June 2024: 74.5% from 210 flights
- July 2024: 79.0% from 279 flights
- August 2024: 83.7% from 228 flights
- September 2024: 80.3% from 154 flights
- October 2024: 80.4% from 191 flights
- November 2024: 80.1% from 217 flights
- December 2024: 80.5% from 234 flights
- January 2025: 79.4% from 198 flights
- February 2025: 81.0% from 168 flights
- March 2025: 74.3% from 211 flights
- April 2025: 78.9% from 180 flights
- May 2025: 84.8% from 205 flights
- June 2025: 84.9% from 236 flights
- July 2025: 82.2% from 238 flights
- August 2025: 79.5% from 202 flights
- September 2025: 90.4% from 146 flights
- October 2025: 84.2% from 184 flights
- November 2025: 81.1% from 175 flights
- December 2025: 82.3% from 222 flights
- January 2026: 79.1% from 190 flights
- February 2026: 84.0% from 163 flights
- March 2026: 76.2% from 214 flights
- April 2026: 84.8% from 204 flights
- May 2026: 78.6% from 216 flights
- June 2026: 74.2% from 270 flights
- July 2026: 81.3% from 279 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 80.8% against 81.0% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,806 HNL → SFO 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