Hawaii visitors were already left shocked by the mass cancellations of Southwest Hawaii flights when their entire network required a hard reset last week. But that should be well over with, and Hawaii flights operating normally, right? Not! Another bad day occurred on Wednesday when the airlines reported over 410 Hawaii flights delayed and 5 canceled. We first learned about it from visitors, like Lake, who said, “2 inter-island flights so far on this trip, and 2 late flights.”
While some of the problems can be attributed to bad weather on the west coast, that definitely doesn’t explain most of this situation. The Honolulu runway outage is still impacting Honolulu flights at HNL. But beyond that, much of the ongoing Hawaii flight delays are a mystery. At Honolulu, 50% of Southwest flights were delayed, and just behind them, 49% of Hawaiian flights were delayed.
Here’s the breakdown, airport by airport, that includes both arriving and departing flights. This is as reported by the flight tracking service FlightAware.
We highly suggest you continue to monitor your flight on FlightAware and the progress of the incoming flight that will become your flight. Your editors flew interisland last week and were almost unscathed in terms of flight delays.
199 Honolulu flight delays Wednesday
- 8 Alaska Airlines (40%)
- 8 American Airlines (47%)
- 8 Delta Airlines (40%)
- 91 Hawaiian Airlines (49%)
- 29 Mokulele Airlines (36%)
- 39 Southwest Airlines (50%)
- 13 United Airlines (36%) Also, four flights canceled
- 3 Westjet Airlines (60%)
106 Maui flight delays Wednesday
- 8 Alaska Airlines (47%)
- 5 American Airlines (35%)
- 5 Delta Airlines (50%)
- 43 Hawaiian Airlines (50%)
- 14 Mokulele Airlines (19%)
- 22 Southwest Airlines (57%)
- 7 United Airlines (50%)
- 2 Westjet Airlines (50%)
41 Kauai flight delays Wednesday
- 1 Alaska Airlines (10%)
- 3 American Airlines (50%)
- 1 Delta Airlines (100%)
- 22 Hawaiian Airlines (50%)
- 10 Southwest Airlines (50%)
- 4 United Airlines (40%)
44 Kona flight delays Wednesday
- 6 Alaska Airlines (54%) Also, one cancelation
- 4 American Airlines (66%)
- 2 Delta Airlines (66%)
- 16 Hawaiian Airlines (36%)
- 1 Mokulele Airlines (7%)
- 10 Southwest Airlines (50%)
- 3 United Airlines (33%)
- 2 Westjet Airlines (100%)
20 Hilo flight delays Wednesday
- 11 Hawaiian Airlines (36%)
- 2 Mokulele Airlines (25%)
- 5 Southwest Airlines (50%)
- 2 United Airlines (100%)
Did you get stuck with Hawaii flight delays?
We are hearing from passengers whose flights were delayed, which was clearly unexpected. Hawaii vacations continue to be upended as flights across the airlines cannot be relied on to operate timely.
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For my edification, what is the definition of a delay, with regard to this article? And who are the entities reporting each delay? Thank you.
Hi Neil.
These are delays, as reported by FlightAware. https://flightaware.com/. They do not list the length of delays, so it merely indicates a late departure or arrival.
Aloha.
HA 393 hnl-lih yesterday, Jan.4 was delayed 45 minutes at the gate.
Thanks for keeping on top of this issue.
Hi Jim.
Thank you for letting us know.
Aloha.
One of those times we, well I wish the super ferry existed!
Hawaiian had 183 disrupted flights. Southwest only had 86. Hawaiian had a 213% higher number of flights delayed than Southwest.
HA has way more inter island flights and West Coast flights and as a result full exposure to the runway closure and current CA weather. What those statistics don’t say is how many of those flights represent a short delay, versus a long delay or full cancellation.
Hawaiian offers a much more reliable service for Hawaii then any other airline because they are locally based. Trying to bolster SWA (especially after what they just revealed about their operation) by putting down Hawaiian seems to be a common theme. Hint, people coming here from out of state and putting down Hawaiian culture or it’s people is frowned upon.
Why the personal attack about “putting down Hawaiian people or it’s culture”? I just listed flight statistics from the BOH article.
You, John W, post dozens of times in support of Hawaiian Airlines.
HA is a business, not a person or culture, and I just pointed out the fact that HA had 183 flight disruptions in one day. Feel free to only use HA if that is your choice. Please don’t equate passengers that choose other airlines as “putting down Hawaiian culture or it’s people.
Hawaiian is in fact Hawaii‘s flagship airline. They are the largest private employer and a huge factor in the local economy. Not only the almost 7000 employees that depend on them but the many thousands more of family members who are all a part of Hawaii and it’s communities . Not only is Hawaiian the most reliable provider of air service for the state, it’s the airline that does things like buy Dreamliners to open new routes. When Hawaii gets non stop service to, say London or Singapore, the whole state benefits. If you don’t live here you don’t get it, but sadly much of the SWA persona has been to try and attack the local carrier. A ticket on Hawaiian supports the entire state, or as they say, buy local it’s good for the Hawaii economy.
Btw Robert, to mine and Eldo’s point. Look at the list in the article…..A greater percentage of the SWA flights then the HA flights on the same routes were late or in SWA’s case possibly canceled ……Yet you tried to twist those statistics to somehow indicate HA is less reliable??
When a route that says 50% of SWA flts are late or cancelled and 36% of HA is cancelled that means HA is more reliable. Because HA has a complete maintenance base in Hawaii and back up crews/Aircraft they are less vulnerable to long delays or cancelled flights like SWA is with their remote inter island operation.
If I pledge to only fly Hawaiian Air, will you please not frown on me?
LOL…good one Robert, it’s a deal😀
Not sure why this is so surprising. Clearly it is about the weather, on the West Coast, as well as the Honolulu -specific airport problems. All of these flights are interrelated. They are subject to the domino effect. And all of the airlines appear to be affected pretty much equally, statistically speaking, looking at the numbers that you provide. There’s nothing surprising about this at all. Bad wether delays flights, always.