Southwest Airlines Starts Hawaii Flight Expansion Early In Time For The Holidays

Last month, Southwest Airlines announced that it would begin service between Sacramento and Honolulu and inter-island service between Honolulu and Lihue starting Jan. 19, 2020.

Now the popular airline has announced that they are moving that date up to Nov. 10, 2019 just in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas/Holiday travel.

Southwest began flying to Hawaii earlier this year due to strong demand and saw a lot of positivity from their customers. Yet, due to the Boeing 737 grounding epidemic, they were having trouble expanding this service.


Over the summer, Southwest decided to cancel flight destinations across the country -to places like Dallas and Newark- to create room for more flights to Hawaii.

“We are performing, I would say, actually ahead of our expectations,” Tammy Romo, the company’s chief financial officer, said earlier this month about Hawaii flights.

Southwest also said it will begin daily flights on March 7 between Oakland and Lihue, Oakland and Kona, San Jose and Lihue, and San Jose and Kona. Sacramento to Kahului, a new service, will also start on March 7.

Southwest has long planned for flights to Hawaii from four California gateways, but has not yet announced plans for San Diego. Chief Executive Gary Kelly has previously said other western airports on the mainland, possibly Las Vegas, could see Hawaii flights one day.

Click here to learn more about Southwest’s Hawaii flights.