For decades, Hawaiian Airlines connected international passengers landing in Honolulu to the rest of Hawaii. That role is now shifting. As Hawaiian disappears into Alaska, a new partnership is filling the gap, built around Honolulu and Hawaii’s most important overseas visitor market.
The latest links Southwest with Japan’s ANA (All Nippon Airways). The agreement allows passengers to book the trip on one itinerary and check bags through after arriving in Honolulu, then continue on Southwest flights across the islands or to the mainland. There is no codeshare and no shared loyalty program, but it gives ANA a new way to move passengers beyond Hawaii’s main gateway.
Japan remains Hawaii’s most important international visitor market, and ANA has spent years developing its Hawaii strategy around Honolulu. The airline previously suspended other Hawaii routes but kept Tokyo-Honolulu and centered that route on its widebody A380 (BOH © photo). The new agreement links ANA flights to Southwest through five other gateway airports including Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington D.C.
Why ANA and Honolulu go together.
ANA does not need help selling Tokyo-Honolulu. What it needs is help after Honolulu. Traditionally, visitors land in Honolulu and Hawaiian Airlines carries them the rest of the way to Maui, Kauai, or the Big Island. That handoff has been routine for years, and now Southwest has the flights and wants to do the same job.
This is also not the first time Southwest has used Honolulu this way. Philippine Airlines was the first Asia-Pacific carrier to set up an interline with Southwest through Honolulu, allowing passengers to arrive from Manila and continue using Southwest flights. ANA is the second, which makes this look less like a one-off and more like its real Honolulu strategy.
The connector role Hawaiian used to own.
For decades, when overseas passengers landed in Honolulu and headed to another island, Hawaiian flew the next segment. Foreign airlines brought visitors into the state, and Hawaiian distributed them across it.
That system is now changing because Hawaiian is becoming part of Alaska Air Group next month and will move into Alaska’s reservation and operating systems. The stand-alone Hawaiian Airlines, which built its network around Hawaii and its interisland role, is gone.
Southwest, meanwhile, has built its own reasonably large Hawaii schedule since entering the market in 2019, with interisland flying, mainland routes, and enough seats moving via Honolulu every day to carry many passengers onward after they land. Southwest has sought to increase its share of this market for years. With ANA joining, Southwest now has seven international interline partners, with ANA the only Star Alliance airline among them.
Southwest has bigger plans at Honolulu.
The airline is also investing in HNL itself. Southwest’s very first lounge will be located at Honolulu Terminal 2, which will be the first but not the last such lounge. Making HNL first is yet another sign that Hawaii is becoming more than just another endpoint on the Southwest route map where people arrive for vacation and leave a week later.
What this means for Hawaii travelers right now.
This is still a limited interline partnership. It allows passengers to book a single itinerary and check bags through, but it does not include codeshares, shared elite benefits, or any deeper airline alliance. A traveler from Tokyo can land in Honolulu and continue to another island or a mainland city on the same reservation. It’s a step.
For years, that role pointed almost automatically to Hawaiian Airlines. Now Hawaiian is becoming Alaska while Southwest builds out its own practical network around Honolulu. ANA joining the group is the latest signal that the shift is real, and it is happening in Hawaii’s most important international visitor market.
What’s your take on Southwest’s latest Hawaii moves, including its first lounge ever and its ANA partnership?
Lead Photo Credit: © Beat of Hawaii at HNL and ANA A380 plane.
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The article is incorrect: Turkish Airlines and EVA Air are also Southwest’s Star Alliance interline partners.
Reading this article you would think that Southwest moves 48,000 people between the islands and Japan each month and Hawaiian moves 0, whereas in reality it’s the other way around. Interline partnerships are great for Southwest, but they’re no substitute for actual metal or alliance partnerships. Hawaiian gains Japan Airlines as a oneworld partner next month and remains Hawaii’s connector to the world. Not the airline from Texas that people are fleeing en masse. Come on.