Southwest Hawaii Flights

Southwest Hawaii Stiffens Competition: 11 New Daily Flights Exposed

Lastest news on Southwest schedules and fares. Some routes continue to have great deals for summer. Find out more in today’s post.

Continue reading

1,796 thoughts on “Southwest Hawaii Stiffens Competition: 11 New Daily Flights Exposed”

  1. I was making plane reservations with SWA yesterday and mentioned to the gal helping me that the only time I hadn’t flown SWA in recent years is when I went to Hawaii. She suddenly asked who I had flown with, when I had gone, was the trip personal or business, do I fly the route often… Sounded a lot like routine marketing questions. I told her I had heard rumors that SWA was going to be flying there soon since they had acquired over water certified planes. She blurted out, “We can’t wait much more either! We got a lot when we acquired Air Tran”. Then she back pedaled to a more passive tight lipped company line. Sounds like the reservation operators have gotten a few service plan hints too. Interesting…

  2. I’ll be so happy when Southwest offers flights to Hawaii. I’m planning a trip to Hawaii in September 2015, my 10 year anniversary with my wife and I really want to fly southwest with my 86,000+ points. Can’t wait. Come on Southwest. Please get it done before September 2015. Anywhere in Hawaii is fine with me.

  3. Well, I currently live in Houston and will probably be moving to Dallas after college. However, as for being here in Houston, I love going to Hawaii (Maui in particularly) when my family and I go. However, United Airlines is based here in Houston, it’d be awesome and more convenient for me to be able to fly Southwest to Hawaii, I don’t care where the connection would be, it’d be sure to give United a run. I have one question though beat. If the service between LA/Oakland and Honolulu goes well, do you think it might be possible if they start flying to Kahului? Thank you

    1. Hi Rusty,

      Unfortunately Southwest seems sidelined at the moment with matters of higher urgency to them than Hawaii. Certainly Kahului would be a possibility for Southwest.

      Aloha.

  4. Trust me Beat of Hawaii I want this just as much as everyone else does. I flew the 737-800 to Hawaii for ATA Airlines and it’s just not a great aircraft for the job. I wish we had 900ERs but I’m guessing we will wait for us to be the launch customer for the MAX. I think it will com but in due time.

    1. Hi Brian,

      Yes we understand that 738 is very limited compared to the MAX or even 757. Anyone with an interest in Hawaii travel, resident or visitor, is pretty desperate for any kind of relief such as the competition that we hope SWA might bring.

      Aloha.

  5. Whoever wrote this article did not do their research. For the 737-800 to fly to Hawaii in the Southwest current seat configuration they would have to leave at least 2 rows empty because of fuel and weight restrictions for that distance over water….

    If Southwest is going to enter the Hawaii market it wont be until after delivery of its new 737 max’s with first delivery expected sometime in 2017

    1. Hi Keith,

      That may well be the case and SWA could went until the new planes to come to Hawaii. It appears that they intended to fly to Hawaii with the 737-800 so some plan must have been in place for using that aircraft.

      Aloha.

  6. Beat of Hawaii you are incorrect again. Aloha was the first carrier to do ETOPS in the 737 and that was in 1986 and only from Honolulu to Christmas Islands which is just over 3 hours. Prior to that date they operated longer flights but in a DC 10 to which ETOPS was not applicable because it had 3 engines. It wasn’t until 2000 that they operated to the mainland with 180 minute approval.
    Josh that is possible however at that time we will be the launch customer for the 737-700 MAX. Completely new ballgame. Or if we hit our 15% ROIC there very well could be another airline acquired.

  7. Brian your response was perfect, you might hear an announcement next year but realistically it will be closer to 2017 before the first flight to the island. Until then I will dream and keep my fingers crossed. Aloha

  8. Well that’s only correct if you are flying an aircraft like the B757 or larger where there are 5 or even 6 separate sources of electrical power, 3 separate hydraulic power and 2 independent fuel crossed valves. There are a few more items but I won’t bring those up. In the case of the B737 where there are only 3 sources of electric power including having to run the APU the entire flight, only 2 sources of hydraulic power and only a singly fuel crossed valve it usually takes at least double the amount of input data to the FAA to escalate your program from 120 minutes to 180 minutes ETOPS.
    Yes the prices are high but the yields are extremely low so whenever fuel spikes you’re operating at a loss. In the case of the B 737-800 where you usually cannot fill the entire aircraft due to weight restrictions it just doesn’t make good business sense.
    As much as I would lover to operate back to the Islands I don’t see it in the bear future at all.

  9. I’m sorry Beat of Hawaii but you are speculating just a little too much. Just because an airline acquired ETOPS certification does not mean they can fly to Hawaii. Yes we (SWA) did receive our ETOPS certification however we do not have 180 minute ETOPS that Hawaii would require. 180 minute ETOPS means that if an engine fails there is a suitable airport for an alternative that we could fly to. Currently we are only certified for 120 minutes and that is a gigantic difference. The FAA will require that we prove maintenance reliability for quite awhile before they will bump that up so it’s just Mexico and the Caribbean for now.
    For those if you wishing for PHX good luck on a 737-800 for the simple fact that you’ll run out of gas. You can’t do that run legally. Allegiant utilized 757-200 which has a much longer range. Ditto then goes for MSP. For those asking ONT it’s not going to happen. Not enough pax out of there. SNA? Sorry but with a 5700 foot runway I would be surprised if we could carry a half full plane with passengers.

    Management is telling us now that Hawaii has been moved to the very far back burner and we will be concentrating on the Caribbean, Mexico and South America. Maybe someday but since there’s hardly any money in Hawaii I don’t foresee it for quite some time.

    1. Hi Brian.

      Achieving 180 etops quickly is not an issue for swa. Timing of course is and this doesn’t appear to be the window of opportunity swa had anticipated. On the other hand Hawaii air prices are so high that it may attract other players.

      Aloha.

      Aloha.

Comments are closed.

Scroll to Top