Route profile
HNL→SLC
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Honolulu to Salt Lake City, 2,994 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 86% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,182 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
HNL → SLC arrives on time 85.9% of the time; the return trip, SLC → HNL, arrives on time 78.8% of the time, a 7.1-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
HNL → SLC spends 24.8 minutes on the ground on a 2,994-mile trip: 19.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at HNL and 5.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at SLC.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route stays close to typical even on its worst days, a smaller gap than 91% of 4,598 comparable routes.
A typical arrival is 9 min early, and the worst tenth are only 31 minutes worse than that.
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 4,598 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where HNL to SLC differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
HNL to SLC is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 7 PM: 88.3% arrive on time, 20.9 points ahead of the 67.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 20.5 points.
HNL to SLC holds up on Mondays better than routes of similar length do: 88.1% on time to their 76.8%, a 11.3 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 10.9 points.
July is kinder to HNL to SLC than to routes of similar length: 88.9% on time against 71.5%, 17.4 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 19.2 points.
Delta Air Lines does better on HNL to SLC than on its routes of similar length: 86.6% on time here, 79.6% there, 7 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 5.1 points.
HNL to SLC against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 PM departures | 88.3% | routes of similar length | 67.4% | +20.9 pts | 721 here, 6,303 there |
| Weekday: Monday | 88.1% | routes of similar length | 76.8% | +11.3 pts | 310 here, 41,771 there |
| Month: July | 88.9% | routes of similar length | 71.5% | +17.4 pts | 208 here, 35,253 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 86.6% | routes of similar length | 79.6% | +7.0 pts | 1,348 here, 49,648 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 2,994 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
22 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 2,182 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SLC after arriving from HNL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 30% | High risk |
| 45 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 7.8% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.5% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 3.3% | 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 1.05% of the time and diverts 0.37% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,151 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 22 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,182 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
HNL → SLC flights departing 6–9 PM arrived on time 87.4% of the time, against 76.5% for 9 AM–12 PM departures, a gap of 10.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 88.3% on time from 735 flights
- 8 PM: 85.3% on time from 548 flights
- 9 PM: 84.7% on time from 179 flights
- 10 PM: 86.1% on time from 285 flights
- 11 PM: 86.1% on time from 162 flights
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why HNL → SLC 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for HNL → SLC. 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 | 1,375 | 86.6% | 1.67% | -10 min | 4.2% |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 596 | 86.4% | 0.00% | -9 min | 4.7% |
| Alaska Airlines | 211 | 79.4% | 0.00% | 0 min | 5.7% |
Delta Air Lines flew 63.0% of the 2,182 flights listed. Delta Air Lines cancelled 1.67% of its flights here against 0.00% for Hawaiian Airlines.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 7.2 percentage points more often than Alaska Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Saturday the least, a gap of 7.4 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 77.8%
- Feb: 84.8%
- Mar: 80.6%
- Apr: 83.9%
- May: 84.2%
- Jun: 89.7%
- Jul: 88.9%
- Aug: 90.3%
- Sep: 91.2%
- Oct: 89.5%
- Nov: 89.0%
- Dec: 84.1%
January is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 13.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.3% against 87.2% in the 12 months before — declining by 4.9 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,182 HNL → SLC 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