HONOLULU (AP) – Southwest Airlines expects to more than quadruple its daily number of seats flying into and between Hawaii’s islands before the completion of its first year of Hawaii service.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Thursday that the airline credits strong customer demand for its Hawaii growth. v Officials say the Dallas-based carrier began flying to Hawaii in March with one daily, round-trip flight between Honolulu and Oakland, California.
Southwest expects to fly between Honolulu and Lihue, Hawaii, and Honolulu and Sacramento, California, beginning in November rather than January.
The company also plans to add daily service beginning in March 2020 between the islands and California cities including Sacramento, Oakland and San Jose.
The carrier’s expansion was delayed by the Federal Aviation Administration’s grounding in March of Boeing 737 Max jets, which is ongoing.
