Copyright Simple Flying
As one of the largest operators of commercial aircraft in the United States of America, blue-clad budget carrier Southwest Airlines has a huge domestic network. This extends beyond the country's mainland, and, notably, features a considerable presence in the state of Hawaii, in the Pacific Ocean. Despite Southwest Airlines being a key player as far as scheduled commercial passenger flights to and from Hawaii are concerned, it only began flying there relatively recently. Indeed, the carrier has been serving the state for less than seven years, so let's see how its Hawaiian network has evolved in this period. How It Started The relationship between Southwest Airlines and Hawaii began back in 2019, and, in February of that year, The Points Guy reported that the carrier had flown a Boeing 737-800 to Honolulu (HNL) on a test flight from Oakland (OAK) as it looked to establish a presence in the state. This service only had FAA inspectors and ETOPS crew onboard, but, a little over a month later, the carrier operated its inaugural passenger flight on this route. As reported by Simple Flying at the time, this service took to the skies on March 17, 2019, with the Port of Oakland noting that there were 152 guests and seven crew members on this inaugural flight. More and more flights were added over the course of the year, with Cirium, an aviation analytics company, showing that Southwest scheduled 7,511 flights to and from Hawaii in 2019. Port of Oakland Director of Aviation, Bryant Francis, said: "We are so pleased and honored that our partners at Southwest selected Oakland to be the launch point from the mainland US for its new service to Hawaii." This Time Last Year Despite the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, the Southwest Airlines Hawaiian network continued to grow, with 14,413 flights in 2020, 31,340 in 2021, 38,895 in 2022, and 41,167 in 2023. As pictured above, the latter year also saw the carrier reveal a special Hawaii-themed livery: Imua One. 2024 saw a slight drop in terms of Southwest Airlines' Hawaiian coverage, with 37,621 flights to and from the state penciled in. Of these, 2,843 were scheduled in November, with every single one of them rostered to be operated by a Boeing 737 MAX 8. According to aeroLOPA, these jets have 175 economy seats. As well as operating flights between Hawaii and the mainland, Southwest has also established itself as an option for inter-island travel. Indeed, its top Hawaiian route by frequency in November 2024 linked Honolulu and Maui (OGG) up to 11 times a day. Routes to and from Hilo (ITO), Kona (KOA), and Lihue (LIH) were also popular, while the top corridors from the US mainland saw twice-daily Honolulu flights from Oakland and San Diego (SAN). Southwest's Hawaiian Network Today This year, Southwest's Hawaiian coverage has continued to slowly shrink, with 32,834 Boeing 737 MAX 8-operated flights to and from the state planned for 2025. Its presence for November specifically amounts to a grand total of 2,512 flights, with these services collectively offering 439,600 seats and 520,794,050 available seat miles. Of these 2,512 flights, more than half (1,448 sectors) are inter-island services within Hawaii itself. The 101-mile (162.5 km) hop from Honolulu to Maui remains the top Hawaiian route for Southwest Airlines, albeit with a lower frequency (compared to last year) of seven or eight flights a day in each direction. This route is at the shorter end of the distance spectrum, although still longer than the 84-mile (135.2 km) jaunt from Kona to Maui. Along with Lihue to Maui, this is Southwest's lowest intra-Hawaii frequency, with just one rotation a day. In terms of Southwest's Hawaiian flights that originate on the US mainland, there is a new leader in terms of frequency in November of 2025, with the route from Las Vegas (LAS) to Honolulu served as many as three times a day this month. San Diego-HNL retains two flights a day, but Oakland has dropped to one.
