For years now rumors have swirled about Southwest launching service to Hawaii. So it was a surprise when Virgin America beat them to the punch. But now Southwest confirms Hawaii plans with service commencing in the near future.
It seems like there’s always been rumors that Southwest would fly to Hawaii soon. Every year the same rumor would repeat itself, and every year no announcement would be made. Now, however, we have official confirmation that Hawaii is on Southwest’s radar.
Gary Kelly Confirms
On Wednesday, Southwest’s CEO, Gary Kelly, spoke at the annual shareholders meeting in Phoenix. During his speech, Kelly confirmed that flights to Hawaii are a high priority for the airline. And while Kelly says flights could begin as early as next year, he also said that 2018 might be a little too ambitious.
Certification
While flying to Hawaii doesn’t seem that difficult, for an airline like Southwest, doing so will be a challenge. The airline has traditionally flew only within the Continental U.S. But in recent years this began to change. Southwest acquired ETOPS certified aircraft when it acquired Trans-Air, and has been updating its fleet with aircraft that has the legs needed to reach the islands. This alone, though, isn’t enough to begin long flights overwater.
Beyond acquiring ETOPS certified aircraft, Southwest will, as a company, need to become ETOPS certified too. And in recent years they have. Southwest is now ETOPS 120 certified, allowing it to fly directly across the Gulf of Mexico rather than around it. Flights to Hawaii, though, will require at least ETOPS 180, which the airline needs to work towards now.
Potential Routes
Gary Kelly stated that initial Hawaii routes would be operated from the West Coast. Currently, Southwest’s West Coast operating bases are at Oakland, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Phoenix, Arizona. And today, competition on those routes include:
- Oakland: Hawaiian Airlines, Alaska Airlines
- Las Vegas: Hawaiian Airlines, Allegiant Air (2x weekly), Boyd Vacations Hawaii (Omni Air), Delta Airlines (seasonal beginning December 2017)
- Phoenix: Hawaiian Airlines, American Airlines
Two out of the three Southwest west coast gateways are currently served by only two airlines. And while Las Vegas looks like it has a ton of competition, Hawaiian is the only true, full-service airline flying that route today. That is until Delta begins service later this year, but that will only be seasonal service. Hawaiian needs strong, regular competition on this route, as tickets to Vegas on Hawaiian are among the airline’s most expensive. At present, its cheaper to fly Hawaiian to Tokyo than it is to fly to Vegas.
Southwest Confirms Hawaii Plans Final Thoughts
Like I’ve always said, more competition is always a good thing. With Southwest’s entry into the Hawaii market, all major U.S. airlines will have service to Hawaii except for JetBlue and the ULCCs. Southwest’s presence will obviously mean more options for travelers to and from the islands, as well as additional points/miles redemption opportunities. It may also help to lower the cost of travel to Hawaii, which in-turn, could help boost our economy by making the state more accessible to visitors from the Continental U.S. And if Southwest does choose to commence service between Hawaii and Las Vegas, that would be a boon for Hawaii resident too. We desperately need more competition on that route to help bring prices down a bit.
Hmmm…. You said “Southwest confirms Hawaii plans with service commencing in the near future.”
And Kelly says “flights could begin as early as next year, he also said that 2018 might be a little too ambitious.”
In either scenario, I wouldn’t consider that the near future. More like SWA will be going to Hawaii in the next couple of years. “Near future ” statement smacks a bit like “click bait” :-)
lol! Patrick, isn’t that open to interpretation? After all, we’ve been hearing that they’re going to serve Hawaii for, oh, I don’t know… 10-ish years? So I’d say the next year or two is in the near future in comparison. ?
Southwest flies from a lot of West Coast airports. What about those? Vegas and Phoenix are not quite West Coast in comparison.
MJ, I kept the list only to Southwest’s operating bases. These airports would make the most sense since they have established crew bases, negating the need to position crews/aircraft. It is possible that they’d choose to fly from other West Coast cities, however, these would be the easiest to implement. And if you look at airlines currently serving Hawaii, they all operate out of their West Coast bases despite serving other cities as well. For example Alaska (Seattle, Anchorage, Los Angeles, Oakland, Portland), American (Los Angeles, Phoenix), etc.
Southwest also flies a ton of routes out of San Jose so there shouldn’t be any positioning of crews/aircraft and I’d guess they’d sell more tickets from there to Hawaii than from Oakland. I know I never fly out of Oakland since it is so far from anything here in the Silicon Valley.
That’s a possibility as well, RC. I believe San Jose is another destination, like Oakland, that’s currently served by only Hawaiian and Alaska too.
Southwest should do well on a route to Hawaii as the current offerings so weak. It’s not like they have to even compete on routes with true First or Business class seats so it should work out well for them.
Spirit has international routes to South America. I assume they have some certification over water as well?
Very true, DaninMCI. Its a very price sensitive market, which also sees a ton of award flights too. But it is a very crowded market with American, United, Delta, Hawaiian, Alaska, Virgin, Allegiant, and Boyd all flying multiple flights daily. And all but Virgin, Allegiant, and Boyd all fly direct to each island too. It’ll be interesting to see how Southwest enters the market and competes.
I can’t seem to find any information regarding Spirit, so I’m guessing they probably don’t have ETOPS. But, perhaps their flight paths from the US to South America are never more than a hour away from a diversion airport? The minimum ETOPS certification is for 75 minutes.
Great news KH46! Thanks for letting us know!
You’re very welcome, KS77. Does this mean you’ll be visiting the islands now? ?