As travel demand began returning in 2021, the carrier added new gateways in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas. Southwest’s Hawaii expansion was interrupted again by the pandemic, which saw travel demand plunge because of fear of COVID-19 and government containment measures. But just days before its Hawaii launch, its initial plan hit some turbulence with the grounding of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft following fatal crashes on Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines. Southwest has had big dreams for Hawaii since entering the market on March 17, 2019. The carrier added one Lihue-to-Maui trip per day in July and will keep that level of service in September. Southwest increased its Kona-to-Maui flights to two trips per day in July, but will reduce it to one in September. The carrier expanded Honolulu-to-Maui to eight flights per day in July, and will increase it to 11 in September. Interisland service between Honolulu and Hilo will rise to five times a day in September. To meet demand, changes to Southwest’s interisland service include switching daily departures this month to five times daily between Honolulu and Kona, and Honolulu and Lihue and increasing daily departures to six times daily in September. Jordan said there also has been significant interisland growth. Watterson said load factors for interisland flights in Hawaii are currently running percentages in the 60s because business travel has not returned to the pre-pandemic level. I think Hawaii is no different.”Īndrew Watterson, Southwest’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer, who accompanied Jordan to Hawaii, said the airline is expecting a strong summer in Hawaii, where its load factors for trans-Pacific flights are currently running percentages in the 90s. “Our second- quarter operating revenue should be an all-time record, and that’s because primarily that leisure travel is up so much compared to 2019. “Our leisure business is up substantially compared to 2019,” he said. Jordan said business travel hasn’t quite come back, but “revenge travel” is real among leisure travelers, who have a pent-up desire to travel. But since then, Jordan said, he has seen “very rapid” recovery, which has led to “substantial improvement” in the Hawaii market. He said Hawaii’s pandemic recovery has been slower than other markets’ because it still had COVID-19-related travel restrictions until March. Our people have been received really, really well.” Our service has been received really, really well. “Second, I think our product has been received really, really well. Those difficult circumstances don’t change that,” Jordan said. We are going to be part of the community. So, pandemic or not, our desire is to stay in a market, because we’ve already decided it makes sense. 1, until you absolutely have no choice, we hold our ground. Jordan told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser during an interview Tuesday that Southwest remains deeply committed to Hawaii. They spent about a week in the islands, also stopping in Hilo, Kona, Lihue and Maui to meet with employees, and tourism and community decision-makers. He arrived in Honolulu on June 27 with other members of Southwest’s leadership team. He is focused on hiring, improving reliability and improving technology for staff and customers as he guides the carrier out of the pandemic. Jordan, who took the reigns of Southwest in February, is a more than 30-year veteran of the carrier. Southwest CEO Bob Jordan announced last week during his first trip to Hawaii that by September the airline plans to increase interisland trips to 60 per day from 38 per day to better serve day-trippers and business travelers. To meet the expected growth, the airline says it plans to scale up staffing in the islands by another third. Southwest’s second-year story here was all about trans-Pacific growth, but this year the carrier is focused on interisland service, which by fall it expects to increase about 60%. Southwest Airlines is still picking up momentum, at least locally, in its third year of flying in Hawaii.
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