Los Angeles to Honolulu distance

Los Angeles to Honolulu in a straight line

In a straight line, the shortest distance over the Earth’s surface, Los Angeles and Honolulu are 2,563 miles (4,125 km) apart, 10% of the way around the Earth at the equator. That’s the geodesic on the WGS84 ellipsoid, the distance “as the crow flies”. There’s no road between them: Honolulu is on Oahu, and the straight line crosses 2,535 mi of sea.

From Los Angeles, Honolulu lies to the west (bearing 260°), and from Honolulu, Los Angeles lies to the northeast. The straight line reaches Honolulu on a bearing of 241°: the bearing keeps turning along the way (19° in all), which is why the shortest route looks curved on a flat map.

If the plane kept the same bearing all the way (250°, to the west), it would follow the rhumb line, the one that looks straight on a Mercator map: 2,575 miles (4,144 km), 11.6 mi more (0.5% longer).

What the route flies over

Under the straight line there are 2,535 mi of sea (99%) and 28.0 mi of land, over the United States.

Planes don’t follow the line exactly: they fly along airways, chase tailwinds and avoid closed airspace, but on long flights they stay close to it.

Halfway between Los Angeles and Honolulu

Halfway along the straight line, 1,282 miles (2,062 km) from each city, is the point 29.1470° N, 139.2538° W. It falls at sea; the nearest town is San Francisco (California, pop. 826,079), 1,106 mi away.

Time difference and flight

A direct flight would take about 5 hr 40 min. That’s an estimate: 30 minutes for takeoff, climb, descent and landing, plus the 4,125 km straight line at 800 km/h (about 497 mph), a typical airliner cruising speed. Real schedules depend on wind, routing and airports, and not every pair has a direct flight. Westbound flights usually take a little longer than eastbound ones because of high-altitude winds (the jet stream).

In January, Honolulu is 2 hours behind Los Angeles; in July, 3 hours behind Los Angeles. It changes because they don’t switch to summer time together.

With that flight time, if you leave Los Angeles at 10:00, you land in Honolulu around 13:40 (Honolulu time) in January and around 12:40 in July.

The two cities

Honolulu is 12.7° farther south than Los Angeles and 39.6° farther west. Los Angeles sits at 284 ft (87 m) and Honolulu at 19 ft (6 m). Los Angeles has 3.9 million people and Honolulu 345,482 people (Census Bureau estimate for 2025).