Will travelers face fewer Southwest Hawaii flight options and potential schedule disruptions ?
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26 thoughts on “Future Of Southwest Hawaii Flights Unclear Amid Shakeup, Route/Job Cuts”
Will travelers face fewer Southwest Hawaii flight options and potential schedule disruptions ?
Southwest has to be losing millions of dollars on their interisland side. They are flying half empty planes while adding more carbon emissions. They will never be profitable in this sector and should just give up or reduce their capacity.
Hello, it would be sad to see any Hawaiian flights cut! We go at least once a year and the perks on SW especially the luggage is outstanding! And the lowing prices are always a plus. Friendly always! Would we take red eyes yes more than likely! Hopefully flights will continue as planned.
Diane, while you say it would be sad to see HA reduce flights you say you support SWA? SWA is the airline that has been trying to hurt them in the marketplace by operating at a loss to try and insert themselves into Hawaii. SWA has been guilty of flooding the market with cheap fares and upending the tourism industry here and then cutting way back after the damage was done. Hawaii is very sensitive to businesses from out of state that try to take far more than they give. The so called “SWA effect” was very bad for Hawaii.
Southwest is an unpleasant airline and unfortunately they hitched their wagon to Boeing.
The interisland flying is money losing and expect it to mostly go away when they can start flying red eyes.
A red eye on Southwest. Shudder.
Red eye flights if making prices cheaper will definitely be welcomed. Hawaii people would love direct red eye flights to vegas.
Some context on how bad the arrivals are at Kahului (OGG). The US Department of Transportation (bts.gov) publishes monthly airline statistics. For “load factor” (i.e., how full the planes are), the latest information is from January 2024. destination airport, the stats are:
DEST Description Loadfactor
HNL Honolulu, HI: Daniel K Inouye International 84.17%
MKK Hoolehua, HI: Molokai 83.86
KOA Kona, HI: Ellison Onizuka Kona International at Keahole 81.18
LIH Lihue, HI: Lihue Airport 80.16
OGG Kahului, HI: Kahului Airport 74.76
ITO Hilo, HI: Hilo International 65.59
LNY Lanai, HI: Lanai Airport 59.61
The national average was 78.78% in January. The 74.76% load factor is very low for Maui.
Great articles.