Southwest Starts Second Phase of Hawaii Flights

Southwest Airlines’ expansion into Hawaii is starting its second phase.

The Dallas-based carrier has been aggressive with new routes between Hawaii and California, starting last year with flights from Oakland and San Jose. The strategy proved effective as Southwest limited its usage of large airports such as San Francisco International and Los Angeles International, and was able to dramatically lower prices from the mainland to the islands.

In fact, with 38 daily flights now available from Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento and SFO, Southwest increased the available seats to Hawaii by 30 percent while cutting fares an average of 17 percent across all carriers.

The airline will now fly between both San Jose and Oakland to Lihue, Kauai and Kona, in addition to Honolulu.

Flights to Lihue will be four days a week, and to Kona will be three times a week.

Southwest’s next expansion will come in April. It will begin San Diego-to-Maui service on April 14 and San Diego-to-Honolulu on April 20.

As the San Francisco Chronicle pointed out, Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said during a third-quarter earnings call last year that he expected the success to keep rolling.

“By March 2020, we plan to offer 12 daily departures from California to Hawaii, and 34 daily departures among the Hawaiian Islands,” Kelly said. “We are very pleased with the strength of customer demand for Southwest service in Hawaii, and it will continue to be a focus for growth in 2020.”