when you return from hawaii there are only a few “ flight windows”

1. Early am
2. Lunch time
3. red eye flights.

it’s similar for west- east coast flights. Direct flights can have a slightly different window.

if you fly west to east with connection then 6am-9am gets you to destination around 5 pm-7 pm. A lunch time departure gets you in late evening 9 pm-midnight. Then there is the red eye with 10 p-1230a and gets you there 7-19am next day.

applying thst to hawaii….

the flights from hawsii to western coast or hub cuties follow similar travel window. Early am are for those connecting elsewhere ( usually Chicago and west of Mississippi locations) The flights around lunch are late evening arrivals at the west coast/ vegas/ phx cities. They might have a late of day connection up/ down west coast.

the ones after 9 pm are west coast red eye flights. The ones going farther into the mainland will leave in a window between the lunch time flights and the redeye flights.

so a flight that departs around 12-2 pm can run into volume delays if there are any delays. Sometimes the lights get there faster without heavy jet stream winds but can easily get delayed 1-2 hrs if it’s flipping into the teeth of a pineapple 3xpress jet street that’s dip down to hawaii to west coast.

these 12-2 pm flights are usually out and back flown routes from west coast with a possible island hop

Many of the west coast cities have directs at this time of year on alaska, Hawaiian, and southwest. United, delta, and American have flights to/from their hub cities on the west coast.
WN—OAK, SJC, LAX, SAN, LAS, PHX, LGB
AS— SEA, PDX, Bay Area, LAX, SAN, and other secondary airports
Hawaiian runs directs from many of those citues mentioned above and some secondary airports

All of those routes ( most run daily) are taking off around the same time. Delayed flights coming in will cause more schedule crunches flying out.

There can be other delays indirect on the airlines from state department of agriculture inspections

another issue in Maui airport. You have zones in gates of island hoping flights into one area, and leaving/ entering hawaii fly out of other parts. This restricts gate access further because an out and back AS flight can’t use intra- hawaian gate sreas.