140+ Cancelations In 3 Days: Hurricane Lala Wreaks Havoc On Hawaiian Airlines Flights

Published Aug 17, 2026, 8:54 AM EDT A graduate in German, Jake has a passion for history and regional aviation, and enjoys sampling new carriers and aircraft. He has visited OEM facilities as far and wide as Bristol, Toulouse, and Seattle, and recently enjoyed the milestone of flying his 150th sector as a passenger. Based in Norfolk, UK. Commercial aviation in Hawaii was disrupted for three days, from Friday, August 14 to Sunday, August 16, as Hurricane Lala moved through the region. This resulted in hundreds of delays and cancelations to flights to and from the state's airports, with Hawaiian Airlines (and its new parent company Alaska Airlines) naturally bearing the brunt of the disruption. Now, however, things are getting back to normal. As the main aviation hub in the state of Hawaii, Daniel K. Inouye Honolulu International Airport (HNL) was hit the hardest. Indeed, tracking data made available by FlightAware showed that this facility was consistently in and around the top spot when it came to the world's airports with the most delays and cancelations over the weekend. Let's crunch the numbers and examine the aviation disruption. 3 Days Of Disruption Credit: Shutterstock While Hurricane Lala was at its peak intensity on Saturday, August 15, as it passed to the south of Hawaii's Big Island on a northwesterly trajectory, extensive disruption to commercial aviation operations in the region could also be seen on the days before and after. Data from FlightAware shows that, on Friday, this primarily manifested itself in the form of delays rather than cancelations, at least at Hawaiian. Indeed, while the airline only canceled five flights (2% of its daily total) on August 14, another 54 (23%) were delayed. According to Alaska Airlines, all five cancelations impacted inter-island flights to and from Hilo. On Saturday, Hawaiian registered another 63 cancelations (27%) and 32 delays (14%), with Sunday seeing 72 cancelations (32%) and 121 delays (54%). However, Alaska Airlines said yesterday: "Hawaiian and Alaska Airlines are gradually restoring operations across Hawaiʻi this afternoon and plan to operate a normal schedule [on Monday] as Lala moves northwest and away from the Hawaiian Islands." Honolulu Airport Consistently Topped The Delay & Cancelation Rankings Credit: Shutterstock All in all, Alaska Airlines said on Sunday afternoon once the storm had passed that it had had to cancel a grand total of 143 flights to and from Hawaii across its and Hawaiian Airlines' operations. The vast majority of these were inter-island services, with 112 of the 143 flights (78%) being filed under this category. Meanwhile, the other 31 (22%) were longer transpacific flights to and from airports in Hawaii. The bulk of the disruption could be found in Honolulu, particularly on Saturday and Sunday. Here, 49 departing flights (17%) were axed on August 15, with another 37 (13%) being delayed. In terms of arrivals, 49 (17%) were canceled, and 25 (8%) were delayed. Other major Hawaiian airports that ranked highly in terms of disruption on Saturday included Hilo (ITO), Kahului (OGG), Kona (KOA) and Lihue (LIH). Sunday was another challenging day for Honolulu International Airport. While the peak of the storm had passed and there were fewer cancelations (34 departures and 39 arrivals), there was more disruption when it came to delayed flights. Indeed, 135 departures (51%) and 112 arrivals (40%) ran behind schedule. Today, however, there are currently just two cancelations and 12 delays in each direction. Back To Normal Today Credit: Shutterstock As previously noted, with the worst of the hurricane and its impacts now consigned to the history books, Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines are looking to operate a full service today as far as their network in Hawaii is concerned. However, you might expect these flights to be busier than usual, given that there will be three days' worth of disrupted passengers looking to complete their journeys soon. On account of the extreme circumstances, Alaska Airlines has issued a waiver for passengers who were booked to travel on its and Hawaiian Airlines' flights to and from Hawaii from August 14 to 17. This flexible travel policy gives guests the flexibility to change or cancel their bookings and the ability to rebook onto flights operating until Thursday, as long as the swap was made before the original departure.