Los Angeles to Honolulu

Between Los Angeles and Honolulu, 2.7 million passengers flew nonstop in 2025, on 13 thousand flights of about 2,560 miles and 5.1 hours in the air. The average passenger accounted for about 321 kg of CO2 from the fuel burned, from 252 kg on Southwest Airlines to 398 kg on Delta Air Lines.

321 kgCO2 per passenger, average
2,560 milesabout 5.1 hours in the air
2.7 millionpassengers in 2025
90%of seats filled

CO2 per passenger, airline by airline

Kilograms of CO2 per passenger, one way, 2025. Fuel burned only. Less is better.

Los Angeles to Honolulu by airline, 2025

Airline	Share of passengers	Flights (thousands)	Main aircraft	Seats per flight	Seats filled	kg CO2 per passenger
Hawaiian Airlines	29%	3.5	Airbus A321neo, Airbus A330-200	248	90%	311
United Airlines	25%	2.5	Boeing 777-200, Boeing 757-300	307	88%	357
American Airlines	16%	2.3	Airbus A321neo, Boeing 787-8	196	92%	261
Delta Air Lines	16%	2.2	Boeing 767-300ER, Airbus A321neo	212	91%	398
Southwest Airlines	10%	1.7	Boeing 737 MAX 8, Boeing 737-800	175	91%	252
Alaska Airlines	4%	0.6	Boeing 737 MAX 9, Boeing 737-900ER	178	90%	271

What explains the differences

It's number 36 of the 100 busiest city pairs by passengers, and number 4 for the lowest CO2 per mile flown (0.13 kg per passenger-mile, number 1 being the lowest). A typical route of 2,560 miles in this set comes out at about 343 kg, so this one is 6.4% below it.

The flights use more than one pair of airports: HNL to LAX (87%), HNL to LGB (9%), HNL to ONT (5%). The figures here cover all of them.

The airlines on this route differ by 57% per passenger. Southwest Airlines burned 4,109 gallons per flight and 159 passengers on each, and Delta Air Lines 7,857 gallons and 193 passengers. The gap comes from fuel burned per flight, a little of it offset by passengers per flight. Southwest Airlines flew 91% full here against 91% for Delta Air Lines, flying mostly Boeing 737 MAX 8 against Boeing 767-300ER.

For comparison, the EPA default factor for a flight of this length (0.163 kg per passenger-mile) would give 417 kg. The EPA figure is a national average for flights of that length. The measured figure for this route is 23% lower.

2019 compared with 2025

In 2019 the route carried 2.5 million passengers on 13 thousand flights. In 2025 it carried 2.7 million, up 8%, on 13 thousand flights, up 2%. The average flight had 216 seats then and 231 now, and 91% of them were filled against 90%.

CO2 per passenger was 337 kg in 2019 and 321 kg in 2025, down 4.6%. Fuel burned per flight was up 1.0% (6,776 gallons to 6,846) and passengers per flight were up 5.9% (196 to 208). The distance flown was about the same (2,557 miles then, 2,560 now).

Hawaiian Airlines led in both years, with 27% of passengers in 2019 and 29% in 2025. American Airlines lost the most, 22% to 16%. Southwest Airlines didn't have 1% of the passengers in 2019 and now carries 10%. Sun Country Airlines no longer reaches 1% of passengers, having had 1% in 2019.

Airline by airline, American Airlines went from 326 kg to 261 kg per passenger (181 seats per flight to 196, main aircraft Airbus A321 then and Airbus A321neo now); Delta Air Lines went from 338 kg to 398 kg per passenger (210 seats per flight to 212, main aircraft Boeing 767-300ER in both years).

The airports changed too: HNL to LAX handled 95% of the passengers in 2019 and 87% in 2025.

Los Angeles to Honolulu, 2019 and 2025

Measure	2019	2025
Passengers (thousands)	2,482	2,675
Flights (thousands)	12.7	12.9
Seats filled	91%	90%
Gallons of fuel per flight	6,776	6,846
kg CO2 per passenger	337	321

Kilograms of CO2 per passenger on the airlines that flew the route in both years. 2019 figures use that year's filings and estimated aircraft fuel rates, with type-average replacements for missing or outlying filings as described in the methodology. Less is better.

Los Angeles to Honolulu and back: time in the air

Flights from Los Angeles to Honolulu spent 319 minutes in the air on average in 2025, against 293 minutes from Honolulu to Los Angeles: 26 minutes longer, 9% more. That's the westbound direction, into the prevailing west-to-east winds, which at flight levels often blow at well over 50 miles an hour.

At this route's average burn of about 1,341 gallons per flight hour, those extra minutes cost about 584 gallons per flight, which is about 2.8 gallons or 27 kg of CO2 for each passenger on the slower direction. The route figure above averages both directions.

Time in the air by direction, 2025

Direction	Average minutes in the air	Flights
Los Angeles to Honolulu	319.2	6,455
Honolulu to Los Angeles	293.1	6,419

Fly or drive

There's no road between Los Angeles and Honolulu, so the choice is a flight or a boat, and a flight is the only practical option for most trips.

Flights are listed under the airline that operates them, so regional flying appears under the regional. How the CO2 and drive figures are worked out is in the methodology.

Routes with shared cities or nearby CO2 per mile

Airports on this route: Los Angeles International Airport.

Airport and airline references

Source: US Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), T-100 traffic and Schedule T-2 fuel filings; US EPA transport emission factors. See the methodology.

See all routes, or how the airlines compare overall on the airline pages.