Southwest Airlines will begin its first overnight red-eye flights from Hawaii on April 8 and has announced schedule changes to interisland services. Early indications suggest a significant 20-30 percent reduction in the number of interisland flights.
In a press release today (September 25), Southwest “extended its flight schedule through June 4, 2025, opening customer bookings through the Memorial Day weekend. With today’s schedule extension, travelers will see…the launch of additional red-eye flights from Hawaii.”
The schedule changes at the time of publishing are only shown on their app and not yet on their website .
Long-awaited Hawaii red-eyes flights added.
In previous articles, we discussed how Southwest was planning red-eye flights to Hawaii, reflecting a growing trend in travel between the islands and the mainland.
Just three days ago, we shared insights on what is set to happen this week in Southwest Hawaii D-Day: Could Flights Get Chopped On Investor Day? We also mentioned that we’d first see the extended flight schedule into early June, which has just occurred. Now Southwest has made it official by expanding its red-eye service from Hawaii, increasing travel options for visitors and residents alike.
New Southwest Hawaii red-eye flight details.
1. Honolulu (HNL) to Phoenix (PHX).
- Flight Schedule: 9:05 PM – 6:05 AM (Next Day)
- Frequency: This will be the only overnight flight from Honolulu to Phoenix, other than American Airlines.
2. Honolulu (HNL) to Las Vegas (LAS).
- Flight Schedule: 9:00 PM – 5:50 AM (Next Day)
- Frequency: Hawaiian Airlines also flies this route, including a red-eye. One of three nonstop flights daily the airline will offer on this popular route with Hawaii residents appears to position Las Vegas as a key hub for Southwest’s Hawaii operations. Las Vegas has long been a highly profitable route for Hawaiian Airlines, too, and Southwest is now looking to tap further into that demand.
3. Maui (OGG) to Las Vegas (LAS).
- Flight Schedule: 8:25 PM – 5:00 AM (Next Day)
- Frequency: This will be Southwest’s only nonstop flight between Maui and Las Vegas, making it a unique option for travelers looking for an overnight flight to the “ninth island.”
4. Maui (OGG) to Phoenix (PHX).
- Flight Schedule: 9:30 PM – 5:20 AM (Next Day)
- Frequency: Southwest and American are the sole carriers offering a nonstop red-eye option on this route, a popular connection for those traveling between Maui and Phoenix.
One Southwest red-eye that didn’t happen:
Honolulu (HNL) to Los Angeles (LAX)
- Daytime Service Only: 12:10 PM – 8:45 PM
- Unlike the new red-eye options to Phoenix and Las Vegas, the Honolulu to Los Angeles route remains a single nonstop daytime flight, indicating that Southwest is strategically focusing its overnight services elsewhere.
Key highlights as Southwest Investor Day approaches.
- The reductions appear to be coming for interisland flights, most notably between Honolulu (HNL) and Maui (OGG), where early data indicates up to a 28% flight decrease.
- These adjustments could be part of Southwest’s strategic shift, reallocating resources to more profitable or in-demand routes, such as the newly introduced red-eye flights to the mainland.
What this means for Hawaii travelers.
Fewer interisland flights and fewer overall flights from Southwest may mean less flexibility, fewer options, higher prices, and more reliance on Hawaiian/Alaska for those traveling to and between the Hawaiian islands. As this is preliminary data, with the schedule just added and not yet added to either Google Flights or the Southwest website at the time of publishing, travelers should stay informed and monitor how this evolves.
Tomorrow’s Southwest Investor Day, as well as next week’s meeting with investor Elliott, will be revealing. We will continue to update you as more details emerge and as the Southwest Hawaii flight schedule is finalized.
We welcome your input on these changes!
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What about Ontario to the islands? We need direct flight offered.
Hey Southwest! How about a direct red eye Hilo to Las Vegas!
Southwest needs to include L.A. on the red-eye flight schedule
As far as the hawaii market I personally get trying to make money. As far as assigned seating I am not a fan Southwest should stick with the business model that works which has made them money and can make them money. As far as investors jumping in push for that I am not a fan of that either asking higher ups to retiree etc and brining in poss ceo of a merger I am not a fan of that either. Sounds like to me that they are headed down the road of a merger. They should stick with what made them money in the past and can make them money again turning planes out faster then other airlines. I just hope they don’t charge for bags. Yall make money when we the customer buys a ticket on your plane or yall hall freight or cargo not by assigned seating and checked bags. Stick with the model that works your loyal customers will be there.
Agree 💯
At least a red eye flight gives you an extra morning, lunch time, afternoon until late afternoon on your last day making your vacation almost complete without losing the last day. Catch a flight and try to sleep on the hard vinyl stiff seats that are back breakers. If you can sleep at night it helped me recover from the 3 hour time difference of coming back to the us west coast. When you fly above the clouds there is really nothing to see even it was daytime. Why pay for that extra day that you can’t even enjoy. The only problem I would see is if your flight gets cancelled.
I like SW, but find their seats very uncomfortable. I never fly the airline if the trip is longer than 3 hours or so. I can’t imagine trying to get some rest on a redeye in those seats though. I guess many folks are willing to put up with a lot to get low fares though. “There is no free lunch”…
Best Regards
Looks like:
OGG HNL is at 8 flts/day
LIH & KOA HNL are @ 5 flts/day
KOA OGG stays at 1
LIH OGG stays at 1
ITO HNL remains at 5 flts/day (wow) – figured this would get cut to 3
I am glad they finally got an overnight to Las Vegas and Phoenix to Honolulu. It will provide traveler’s more options to fly. I never did care for Hawaiian’s times to Phoenix. Also, do we know what inter-sland routes were cut? You mention a cut back but what frequency and locations were cut?
The word “Frequency” has a meaning. In air travel it usually refers to number of roundtrip per week. Your article did not include any frequency information.
You should stop referring to “higher prices”! I think what you mean to say are fares that enable any airline to generate enough revenue to maintain safe and reliable flights between our islands.
There is a reason why Hawaiian Airlines and Southwest were not profitable. It was called $39 one-way fares. Both took major losses at these levels. At $79, it would be difficult to make any money.
At your “higher prices,” just maybe, an airline can survive servicing the islands.
In 1968 airfare to Hawaii was $230 to $300. I could fly “student standby $150” RT. A new surfboard cost me $110. Today a new longboat is $900 and Hawaiian is sending me emails offering fares below $250 RT. And the min. wage was $1.05. back then. After deregulation the airlines have been tripping overthemselves to lower costs and increase efficiency and compete for business. Most of them are gone. This is capitalism.
The public benefits and investors in less well run businesses lose their investment. Another group of investors and airline take their place.
Please don’t stop daytime flights back to the mainland Southwest!!
Hi Deanna.
In those markets at least they are replacing daytime flights with overnight flights from Hawaii.
Aloha.
With Southwest cutting inter-island flights, I would love to see some additional flights from Kapalua, someone to give Mokulele a little competition and bring those prices down. I know, at one time there was Ohana by Hawaiian and Island Air. Allowing time for traffic, parking, checking in and TSA, a trip to HNL is three plus hours.
Not to dash your hopes, but the Kapalua Airport runway is only 3,000′. The minimum length for a (Southwest or Alaska Airlines) 737 is at least twice that length. Even Alaska Airlines’ smaller Embraer E175s require over 4,100′ of runway. Therefore, the Kapalua Airport can effectively only handle a turbo-prop commercial aircraft like a Dash-8 Q400 (barely), or an ATR-72, etc. Without an airport expansion, there’s little hope for other than an airline like Mokulele that fly smaller piston aircraft. On the other hand, there is plenty of space to lengthen the runway but since its owned by the State of Hawaii airports division, I wouldn’t be holding my breath for such an expansion.