A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-800 is celebrated in Honolulu on February 5, 2019, after the carrier's first landing in the Hawaiian Islands, with employees in celebration. The flight was part of a certification effort needed to begin passenger service. (Photo11: Southwest Airlines)

Note: This story has been modified since the original publication to clarify the remarks of Southwest CEO Gary Kelly.

The FAA congratulated Southwest Airlines on its test flights in Hawaii and is now awaiting official approval, CEO Gary Kelly told employees at a rally in Dallas on Monday.

Southwest did not release details on the ticket sales schedule, nor when neither the flights will start nor when it will launch the first flights, but Kelly said the airline would have it as soon as it "s ready. she would receive her latest FAA "newsletter", according to the newspaper. A spokesman for the airline.Kelly has already declared to the southwest would start selling tickets a few days after receiving FAA certification for the long flown flights, with the first flights a few weeks later.

Southwest has officially announced its intention to begin service in Hawaii in October 2017. Since then, it has unveiled details. Last year, the airline announced its intention to serve four islands in Hawaii: Oahu, home to Honolulu; Maui, Kauai and the Big Island of Hawaii, home to Kona.

The airline has announced plans to fly to Hawaii from four California cities: San Diego, Sacramento, San Jose and Oakland.

Southwest had originally flagged the prospect of flights from the end of 2018, but this date was delayed as the months went by. He was still hoping to start selling tickets for Hawaii by the end of the year, but that was not the case either.

Southwest officials said the airline was in the final stages of its efforts to obtain the FAA's Extended Range Operational Performance Standards (ETOPS) certification, with flights scheduled to begin on February 1, when federal government closed a few days before Christmas.

ETOP certification, a lengthy process involving new flight manuals and procedures, training, drills and test flights with FAA representatives, is required for twin-engine aircraft on routes where clearance are not close to each other in case of flight problems.

Southwest Chief Operating Officer Mike Van de Ven said on Jan. 24 that the government shutdown had put the Hawaii flight approval process on "deadlock".

He added that Southwest had already started launching flights by the end of March if the closure ended a week ago, otherwise it would not be able to begin flights before April. as soon as possible. The closure ended on January 25, a Friday.

On February 5, Southwest and the FAA resumed their ETOPS activities. On February 5, the first test flight southwest of Hawaii, between Oakland and Honolulu, took place in Dallas. Exercises with the FAA were held in Dallas the week of February 11th. the week. These flights included a detour to Hilo, on the Big Island, during a Saturday flight from Oakland to Honolulu, according to the FlightAware thief.

The airline company The last test flight was from Maui to Dallas on February 19th. Southwest did not intend to fly from his home port of Dallas to Hawaii, but he had flown from Oakland to Maui a day earlier, a test flight who had attracted a lot of attention on Maui.

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