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.

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

  1. We are traveling in mid-January 2019. Are you still thinking Southwest will announce flights to Hawaii by end of Oct. 2018? Any update on Southwest completing ETOPS with FAA? Has Southwest begun hiring employees at Honolulu airport?

    1. Hi Kurt.

      We are on this as much as is possible and we provided updates as soon as we have substantive information. Stand by for more soon.

      Aloha.

  2. Hi

    Just wanted to first say thanks for all the helpful info you provide. I’ve been using your advice for years on this site and it has definitely saved us money as we are frequent Hawaii guests. Right now my wife and I are waiting with our Southwest companion passes to fly SJC to HNL 12/20-12/29. Do you think I should keep waiting or go ahead and purchase my tickets through another carrier now. Again thanks for the time and energy you guys put into this to help!

    1. Hi Daniel.

      Thank you. We just don’t really know the answer definitively. Seems like it should line up for you by then, but there is no guarantee. If your vacation is set otherwise, you might be best off with another carrier. Alternative is to wait and not know. Unfortunately, for your dates, that could become problematic in terms of both price and availability. Wish we had more to offer. Maybe more information within next week if you want to hold until then.

      Aloha.

  3. Have been to Hawaii many times,have relatives their. will we have flights from Milwaukee to connect to go to Hawaii. looking to go in june of 2019.

  4. Hi BOH!!!

    Any new predictions for SWA? We are coming up on the dreaded 30 day advanced purchase date for Thanksgiving…. are you still thinking they’ll announce this month?

    Thanks so much for keeping all informed 🙂

    1. Hi Samantha.

      We don’t know anything definitive, but announcement or not, we’ll be sharing what we have just learned shortly. Still chance of announcement before month end. But as for flying on SWA for Thanksgiving, that’s unlikely.

      Aloha.

    1. From what I hear the ETOPS is getting held up for a proper engine monitoring protocol.To save money SWA actually only leases
      their engines so it makes it hard to do the necessary engine tracking required for 2 engine overwater ops.
      Not sure how they’ll get around that but perhaps if Trump can get his personal pilot to head the FAA it will be easier to make deals with them…..They can focus on business more and less on silly things like safety!

  5. There are some things SWA is not telling you. Notice they are not flying non-stop flights to and from LIH. Their ETOPS 737-800s do not have the Short Field Performance package. Not possible to get a 737 off the ground with passengers and fuel without it. Even with the MAX-8 which is SFP, Southwests configuration makes those aircraft very heavy and ETOPS is not about range, it is about weight and time. SWA is figuring that out.

    Good luck competing with Hawaiian inter-island, no one has been successful so far.

    DEN-HNL in a 737… not with passengers and bags on the plane. Maybe at night… in the winter.

  6. Thanks for the update story on Southwest’s efforts to add Hawaii to their service. We have a vacation to Oahu Dec. 14-22, 2018 and have booked our housing. Have not secured air fares yet as hoping they will become a bit more competitive. We will fly from IND (Indianapolis, Indiana). Am I correct in understanding that when Southwest adds Hawaii, they will roll out with departing flights solely from California? Thanks in advance for your reply

    1. Hi Kathy.

      That’s correct. California only – and just the cities we have listed. We don’t know how they will build the connections from other cities at this point.

      Aloha.

  7. We they are not selling tickets yet all a lot of hot air.
    Looks like the haven’t given there mechanics a pay raise in 7 years according to news articles wont they need them to do the special stuff to fly over water.Not sure I trust a company that is so cheap.Think I would stick with the more professional airlines that have been doing this stuff a long time.

    1. Have fun spending your hard earned money on overpriced tickets. All airplanes are flying garbage cans. There is no product differentiator so why would you pay more for the flight and then pay more for the bags. Profit maximization will ground your elite airline in the end. Don’t believe me? Ask Micheal Porter, he is a Harvard professor of economics. Are they all competing on price? Then the company cannot be a product differentiator, if you try to do both you screw yourself. Look at how much more DAL spends to make roughly the same amount of money.

  8. I, for one, am looking forward to the new service and particularly the Vegas expansion. Hawaiian dominates this market with three flights a day and they NEVER put Vegas on sale (with no competition). It’s time someone else served the market.

  9. Saw a recent Lee Cataluna article referencing the fact that the island of Kauai feels they are at max capacity for tourism…..no more room on the roads and accommodations are hard to find. Wonder how SWA trying to bring in large volumes of tourists will play out?

    1. I live on Maui and we recently started to feel like we’re at capacity, too. There’s still a lot of development, but our roads just can’t handle the traffic. Within the 2 years alone that I’ve been living here I could already feel the change. Every flight from/to the mainland I’ve been on recently, no matter if off-season or not, has been cramped.

      While I welcome SW flying into Hawaii for more affordable ways to get to the mainland to see family, and back (and I absolutely love SW), I’m a little concerned about that, too.

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