Routes › Honolulu (HNL) › HNL to LIH
Route · 12 months to July 2026
Honolulu to Lihue: on-time record
Daniel K Inouye International to Lihue Airport
BTS: A flight is counted as on time if it arrived less than 15 minutes after its scheduled time. Only carriers with at least 0.5 percent of domestic scheduled passenger revenue report. Data through July 2026; this is a monthly history, not live flight status.
Flights from Honolulu (HNL) to Lihue (LIH) arrived on time 83.4% of the time in the 12 months to July 2026. Reporting carriers scheduled 7,722 flights on the route in that period, about 21 a day, a distance of 102 miles.
That is 7.4 points above the national on-time share of 76.0% for the same period and 1.4 points above the 82.0% recorded for all departures from HNL. Flights that did arrive were 4.4 min late on average, and 1.3% of scheduled flights were cancelled (national: 1.8%).
3 reporting carriers flew the route at least 60 times. Southwest Airlines had the highest on-time share at 92.4% of 1,770 flights; Alaska Airlines had the lowest at 76.5% of 3,443.
By scheduled departure hour (local time at HNL), flights leaving from 6 am to 7 am had the highest on-time share, 93.5%; those leaving from 3 pm to 4 pm had the lowest, 68.3%.
The on-time share is down 6.3 points on the previous 12 months (89.7%); cancellations moved from 1.0% to 1.3%.
Of the delay minutes that carriers assigned to a BTS cause category on this route, air carrier 46%, late-arriving aircraft 39% and extreme weather 8%.
- On time 83.4%
- Arrived 15+ minutes late 15.2%
- Cancelled 1.3%
- Diverted 0.1%
Airlines on the route compared
| Reporting carrier | Flights | Share | On time | Avg arrival delay | Cancelled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AS Alaska Airlines | 3,443 | 45% | 76.5% | 9.0 min | 2.2% |
| HA Hawaiian Airlines | 2,509 | 32% | 86.6% | 3.5 min | 0.9% |
| WN Southwest Airlines | 1,770 | 23% | 92.4% | -3.1 min | 0.3% |
Carriers with at least 24 flights in the 12 months to July 2026. The on-time pill is green when a carrier is at or above the route's overall share. Regional carriers operate flights sold under larger airlines' brands; BTS lists the carrier that operated the flight.
Compared with the airports and the nation
| Measure | HNL to LIH | All departures from HNL | All arrivals at LIH | All reported flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arrived on time | 83.4% | 82.0% | 82.2% | 76.0% |
| Arrived 15+ minutes late | 15.2% | 17.0% | 16.6% | 21.9% |
| Cancelled | 1.3% | 0.9% | 0.8% | 1.8% |
| Diverted | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.3% | 0.3% |
| Average arrival delay | 4.4 min | 4.6 min | 2.4 min | 8.1 min |
| Delay minutes per 100 flights | 780 | 1,065 | 910 | 1,684 |
| Scheduled flights | 7,722 | 58,088 | 15,811 | 7,043,858 |
12 months to July 2026. Delay minutes count late arrivals only (an early arrival is zero), so the per-100-flights row is a normalised total rather than an average of early and late.
The return direction, LIH to HNL, recorded 83.1% on time across 7,725 flights in the same period.
Month by month
Year on year: on time 83.4% against 89.7% (−6.3 pts), cancelled 1.3% against 1.0%, flights 7,722 against 8,416.
By scheduled departure hour
Delay causes
Seasonality
| Calendar month | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Avg arrival delay | Years in sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 2,140 | 81.9% | 1.3% | 5.9 min | 3 |
| Feb | 1,919 | 83.6% | 1.2% | 4.9 min | 3 |
| Mar | 2,101 | 83.1% | 1.5% | 5.3 min | 3 |
| Apr | 1,981 | 83.6% | 1.3% | 3.7 min | 3 |
| May | 2,100 | 83.9% | 2.6% | 4.6 min | 3 |
| Jun | 2,018 | 86.1% | 0.7% | 3.0 min | 3 |
| Jul | 2,097 | 85.6% | 0.7% | 4.4 min | 3 |
| Aug | 2,182 | 90.3% | 1.0% | 0.1 min | 3 |
| Sep | 2,054 | 92.8% | 0.4% | -1.1 min | 3 |
| Oct | 2,104 | 88.1% | 0.8% | 1.7 min | 3 |
| Nov | 2,087 | 89.2% | 1.6% | 1.1 min | 3 |
| Dec | 2,120 | 85.8% | 0.8% | 4.2 min | 3 |
Each calendar month summed across the 36 months on file, so most rows combine three years. The pill compares the month with the route's own 12-month share.
Other routes from Honolulu (HNL)
| Route | Cities | Flights | On time | Avg arrival delay | Cancelled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HNL–OGG | Honolulu to Kahului | 10,072 | 84.1% | 4.0 min | 0.9% |
| HNL–KOA | Honolulu to Kona | 7,234 | 84.9% | 3.9 min | 1.1% |
| HNL–ITO | Honolulu to Hilo | 6,294 | 83.7% | 4.7 min | 1.0% |
| HNL–LAX | Honolulu to Los Angeles | 5,514 | 80.5% | 5.7 min | 0.5% |
| HNL–SEA | Honolulu to Seattle | 2,937 | 74.7% | 10.3 min | 0.9% |
| HNL–SFO | Honolulu to San Francisco | 2,465 | 79.8% | 4.2 min | 1.1% |
| HNL–LAS | Honolulu to Las Vegas | 2,198 | 81.3% | 2.7 min | 0.3% |
| HNL–SAN | Honolulu to San Diego | 1,771 | 76.7% | 6.8 min | 1.0% |
All 33 routes and the airport record for HNL · airport record for LIH
Questions and answers
How often are flights from Honolulu to Lihue on time?
83.4% of the 7,722 flights scheduled from HNL to LIH in the 12 months to July 2026 arrived less than 15 minutes after their scheduled time. The national share for the same period was 76.0%. Cancelled and diverted flights count as not on time.
Which airline has the highest on-time share from HNL to LIH?
Among reporting carriers with at least 60 flights on the route, Southwest Airlines had the highest on-time share (92.4%), followed by Hawaiian Airlines (86.6%) and Alaska Airlines (76.5%). Differences of a point or two on a few hundred flights are small.
What causes delays between Honolulu and Lihue?
For flights that arrived 15 or more minutes late, carriers attributed the delay minutes as follows: air carrier 46%, late-arriving aircraft 39%, extreme weather 8%, national aviation system 7%, security 0%. The categories are the carriers' own reports to BTS; weather that slows the wider system is usually recorded under the National Aviation System rather than extreme weather.
What time of day has the highest on-time share from HNL?
Flights scheduled to leave HNL from 6 am to 7 am arrived on time 93.5% of the time, the highest of any hour with enough flights to compare. The lowest was 3 pm to 4 pm at 68.3%. Delays tend to build through the day as late aircraft carry over to later flights.
Is it getting better?
The on-time share for the 12 months to July 2026 was 83.4%, down 6.3 points on the previous 12 months (89.7%). The monthly chart on this page shows each of the last 36 months. Across those months, September had the highest on-time share (92.8%) and January the lowest (81.9%).
Where does this data come from?
Every figure is computed from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance files, which list each scheduled domestic flight by the carriers required to report. This page covers August 2023 to July 2026. It shows totals and averages only; it is not a live flight-status service.
Provenance
Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance (1987 to present), monthly files August 2023 to July 2026, a US government work in the public domain. Figures are totals and averages over all scheduled flights by reporting carriers on the route; no individual flight or aircraft is identified. Times are local to the departure airport. The load factor and passenger counts from the BTS T-100 series are not included in this edition. See the methodology; report processing errors through corrections.