In the spring of 2019, Southwest Airlines began flying to Hawaii, which many consumers were excited about. The airline is known for its great fares, no change fees, and free checked bags, and travelers were happy to see that kind of a business model finally come to Hawaii.
Continue reading: Southwest Airlines Reveals Major Hawaii Expansion
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
What bothers me is that Southwest still has not brought back many of its international routes, such as the flight to Belize.
Will that make PHX-LIH WN's longest non-stop route? GC Mapper has it at 2,979 mi.
How about figuring how to connect Hawaii beyond the west coast.
You can't do that without red-eye or separate ticket.
I feel like its only a matter of time until Spirit adds Hawaii service.
They are the king of red eyes- especially leaving Puerto Rico
I think I'm one of the few that isn't high on Hawaii. I was there once for work about 20 years ago. Traffic was terrible and I'm not a beach person. I'll stick with Europe if I want to get away from the 48 states.
Would love to see Southwest add PDX and SEA to Hawaii.
Alaska has gotten pretty expensive on their flights.
Interesting to see the LAS and PHX flights from LIH and OGG. The MAX-8 will have the range but runway performance might be an issue and I wonder if they will be paylod restricted. They will be close to MTOW and both runways are shorter than what the MAX-8 needs at that weight. These used to be 757 routes for AA for a long time till the A321neo came around because of this, and the 321neo has better takeoff performance than the MAX-8.
Perfect for those who want to enjoy Mass Tourism with the knob turned up to 11, focused on bringing as many low-end vacationers as possible. This is not going to make Hawaii better.
@Ben
Southwest also flies into Hilo. The second airport on the big island. I saw two planes landing there last week.
Is SWA really know for great fares? They are always 10-20% more than anyone else whenever I check.
This is great for WN overall as it is certain to increase their connectivity between their entire network and Hawaii. While they did a great job with invading the intra-Hawaii market, they were still fairly small in the mainland to Hawaii market. This puts them up into the top 3 carriers.
This also will require alot of airplane time so gives an indication of where their growth aircraft will go - in addition to where they are putting aircraft that are coming out of high frequency markets. If they ever get around to adding redeye flights, they have the capacity to add even more Hawaii flights with minimal numbers of additional aircraft.
Presumably, WN got ETOPS approval for its MAX aircraft... which they were working on. Some of these routes, esp. from PHX and LAS will need MAX aircraft, esp. in the summer and winter due to heat and winds.
Good for people that like Hawaii and the prices for them to get there. Not great news at all for Alaska or Hawaiian Airlines.
@Eskimo:
United's new Denver ads (showcased here recently) poked Southwest on exactly that issue. Southwest loves to brag about their cheap fares to Hawaii, but they always gloss over the fact that you have to change planes on the West Coast. United (and most other carriers) offer nonstop service from numerous points east of the Rockies.
You forgot to mention Hawaii is also being served by Southwest via Long Beach! A wonderful an easy airport to get in and out of!
As a Hawaii resident, I have been using WN as my inter island carrier of choice since they started service a few years back and am thrilled to see this big expansion of service. Hawaii needs the increased visitor count and Southwest has great service.
@D3kingg Those Southwest flights landing in Hilo are interisland flights from HNL. As far as I know, Southwest doesn't have direct mainland flights to Hilo, or plans to start them.
Pumped for this! Love a bit of WN!! I do concur that Spirit will probably launch flights to Hawaii at some point, the pricing on the big front seats would be interesting/bargain material!
Being packed into a flying Southwest cattle car would be a sad start to a Hawaiian vacation. LOL!
Still nice to see them expanding service.
@Spaceman Spiff
I do agree that flying economy to Hawaii is not the greatest but don't poo poo Southwest. United, Delta, American, Alaska are no roomier in economy than Southwest. In fact Southwest 737-800's and Max's have 32 " seat pitch and the other airlines have 31" in their narrow bodies.
As far as first class or business class that's a different story but most people fly economy.
Two questions:
1. Will they open a crew base in HNL? That's a lot of flying and hotel rooms for mainland flights, not to mention intra-island flights.
2. Will they have BOB? That's a long time survive just on pretzels.
I've only flown 1st class to Hawaii but this Southwest cost or even using their points is undeniably tempting! $129 each way or 8,719 points each way! And I did not realize this but I only need 5k more points and I get a companion pass! So tempting to book now and save quite a bit of money vs 1st class.
@ARN SEA
In SEA Delta also flies to Hawaii, in addition to Hawaiian and Alaska, plus I believe SW has few existing operations in the PNW. Not worth flying to Seattle from their other bases in order to continue on to Hawaii, so maybe the logistics don't really work. Plus Delta is flying wide body aircraft on SEA-HNL for some time now, so just try to compete with that!
Woooow, the Las Vegas direct flights not only hit Hawaiian airlines where it hurts with their monopoly on the Las Vegas direct flights, but one ups Hawaiian airlines by offering daily flights. Finally there's competition on this route.
Don't forget that AC has announced new routes to Hawaii from YYZ & YUL, plus the return of routes from YVR & YYC.
I think these will initially be slow until the dying public's confidence returns regarding the MAX.
All the evidence of that "the public" are happy with the MAX. Maybe it's just you?
Southwest are already flying more people to Hawaii than Delta, even before those additions.
Generally they are significantly cheaper than the Big Three, though depending on timing, you may get a bargain elsewhere: like all low cost airlines, Southwest fares are based on demand, so if the plane's nearly full, you'll pay more.
(Book early!)
Hello, when will SW fly non-stop to Maui from Seattle?
Thank you, there is a large market here.. Hawaiian and Alaska offer some non stop, but not enough.
Thank You
Hawaii is happy to have Southwest flying from the mainland AND inter-island. They are a welcome relief. When hawaiian was the only carrier flying inter-island, the prices were ridiculously high. They didn't care about Hawaii residents. They just felt that if you wanted to fly inter-island, you will have to fly with them. Now with Southwest in the air, Hawaiian has to lower their prices to match. Good for you Southwest....suck it up Hawaiian, you made local people do it for years.
Why is Hilo the only Hawaii airport without a direct to the west coast and Vegas...we need these flights...there is a market in Hilo
They bring the same green dollars that local people have in their wallets. What's the problem?