Southwest Airlines heads for Hawaii, but it won’t be a vacation. Once Southwest Airlines starts flying to Hawaii next year, it may well add a compelling wrinkle to its schedule: flights between the islands. Southwest Airlines is deciding whether to include some in-state travel along with its trans-Pacific routes, which the company plans to offer starting next year. Andrew Watterson, the Southwest Airlines executive who oversees revenue and is in charge of cracking the Hawaii nut financially, worked at Hawaiian for three years and knows the market well.
Here’s the Bloomberg article that explains it all. Having lived in Hawaii, I can attest to the greater need for inter-island flights whether you’re a Hawaii resident or like 30% of the people getting off a long-haul flight, you connect to a flight to another island. And competition is good, so like most, if not all of you, I’m ready for Southwest Airlines to start flying to Hawaii!
Is there really room for another inter island carrier? Seems like HA would add as as many flights as demand required. I am irritated at the cost of some of the flights, but Southwest isn’t a low cost airline, so seems unlikely much would change.
What really irritates me is cost of so-called F flights – mostly crappy recliners in old planes – I’d pay for lie-flat, but not the junk they currently use. Surely a better product would see higher demand – plenty of well-heeled Hawaiian visitors.
Good question, MM. Who knows what HA thinks. Surely SWA is going to have to figure something out for its passengers when they land at HNL and need to get to another island. I was just having the same conversation with crew on an AA flight about SWA not being a low cost airline. I think everyone knows that by now. We shall see what SWA decides. A lot of eyes are watching!
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