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However, in conjunction with the release of its second-quarter results, Southwest Airlines has announced that it will soon resume growth in Hawaii. On Thursday, the cheap airline has unveiled its upcoming flights to and from Hawaii – and they will begin early next year.
A return to growth finally
<p class = "web-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Southwest Airlines has launched the first of its long-awaited flights to Hawaii back in March. At the end of May, the carrier was making six daily return trips between the mainland and Hawaii – linking Oakland and San Jose to Honolulu and Kahului – as well as 16 daily inter-island flights to Hawaii: four round-trip Honolulu flights. Kahului and four Honolulu-Kona flights. "data-reactid =" 14 "> Southwest Airlines launched the first highly anticipated flight to Hawaii in March, and in late May, the carrier was flying six times daily between Hawaii and the mainland – linking Oakland and San Jose in Honolulu and Kahului – as well as 16 daily inter-island flights within Hawaii: four Honolulu-Kahului return flights and four Honolulu-Kona return flights.
Unfortunately, the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX began shortly after Southwest Airlines announced its first set of routes in Hawaii and lasted much longer than expected. In fact, the airline announced last month that it had withdrawn the 737 MAX from its schedule until January 2020.
A Southwest Airlines 737 MAX 8
The grounding of the 737 MAX has disrupted Southwest's expansion plan in Hawaii. Source of the picture: Southwest Airlines.
Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm "type =" text "content =" However, Southwest Airlines recently decided to terminate all services to Newark Airport. This decision released planes to support additional routes to Hawaii, although the return of the 737 MAX is again delayed. "Data-reactid =" 37 "> However, Southwest Airlines has recently decided to terminate all services serving the Newark Airport to support additional routes to Hawaii – even though the return of the 737 MAX is again delayed.
In the first place, Southwest announced its first connection between Sacramento and Hawaii: a daily non-stop connection to Honolulu. Second, the carrier has announced its first routes from the mainland to Kona and Lihue. From Oakland, he will fly four days a week to Kona and three days a week to Lihue. from San Jose, he will fly three days a week to Kona and four days a week to Lihue. Third, Southwest has revealed three new inter-island routes. It will offer four daily return trips from Honolulu to Lihue, four daily return trips from Honolulu to Kona and a daily round trip between Kahului and Kona.
With these moves, Lihue and Hilo will become the next cities in the Southwest Airlines road network. All of these new lines will begin in early 2020, January 19-21.
Barely a devastating blow
<p class = "canvas-atom-canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "As expected, Hawaiian Holdings (NASDAQ: HA) and Alaska Air (NYSE: ALK) will be the two airlines most affected by Southwest's new Hawaii service. Hawaiian Airlines is currently the dominant carrier on all inter-island routes that Southwest Airlines plans to serve. It also holds the monopoly of the Sacramento-Honolulu line and is currently the market share leader between Oakland and Lihue. "Data-reactid =" 41 "> As expected, Hawaiian Holdings (NASDAQ: HA) and Alaska Air (NYSE: ALK) will be the two airlines most affected by Southwest's new Hawaii service. Hawaiian Airlines is currently the dominant carrier on all inter-island routes that Southwest Airlines plans to serve. It also holds the monopoly of the Sacramento-Honolulu line and is today the market share leader between Oakland and Lihue.
A Hawaiian Airlines plane on the ground
Southwest will challenge Hawaiian Airlines on several inter-island routes next year. Source of the picture: Hawaiian Airlines.
Meanwhile, Alaska Airlines currently holds the monopoly on the San Jose-Kona, San Jose-Lihue and Oakland-Kona routes and competes with Hawaiian on the Oakland-Lihue route.
That said, the latest batch of new roads should not hurt so much in Alaska and Hawaii. The new Southwest-Hawaii routes with Southwest total three flights per day, which has nothing to do with the size of the market and the number of Southwest Airlines frequent flyers in Northern California. Southwest may be able to fill its flights with the additional demand that its presence in these markets will stimulate.
The new Southwest inter-island routes will be more of a headache for Hawaiian Airlines. Nevertheless, the Hawaii-based airline serves the Honolulu-Hilo and Honolulu-Lihue routes respectively 13 and 18 times a day. This will allow him to retain his grip on the high-fare business traffic between the islands, as he offers many more program options than his new competitor.
More flights to Hawaii to come
Notably, Southwest's recent announcement of an additional service in Hawaii did not include any roads from San Diego – the fourth transit city that she named last year. . Even with the decision to stop flying to Newark, Southwest Airlines does not have much capacity available to start new routes yet.
Thus, the San Diego-Hawaii service will have to wait for the return of the 737 MAX. Fortunately for fans of Southwest Airlines, this could happen as early as January. This could potentially put the carrier on track to launch its first San Diego-Hawaii flights around the month of March. Southwest may also consider adding additional flights to Hawaii from Oakland, San Jose and Sacramento.
From here next spring, Southwest Airlines will likely have completed the first phase of its growth plan in Hawaii, putting the chain of islands into operation from four cities in California and creating a network of inter-island routes. The low-cost carrier will thus be able to examine future growth opportunities in Hawaii as it seeks to capitalize on its initial success in that country.
<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Adam Levine-Weinberg holds shares in Alaska Air Group, Hawaiian Holdings and Southwest Airlines. Motley Fool owns shares and recommends Southwest Airlines. The Motley Fool recommends Alaska Air Group and Hawaiian Holdings. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy."data-reactid =" 75 ">Adam Levine-Weinberg owns shares in Alaska Air Group, Hawaiian Holdings and Southwest Airlines. Motley Fool owns shares and recommends Southwest Airlines. The Motley Fool recommends Alaska Air Group and Hawaiian Holdings. Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
<p class = "canvas-atom-text-canvas Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "This article was originally published on Fool.com"data-reactid =" 76 "> This article was originally published on Fool.com.
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