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Southwest AIrlines opens up tickets for first routes to Hawaii

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Southwest AIrlines opens up tickets for first routes to Hawaii

It has been in the works for a while but today Southwest airlines has opened up their first routes to Hawaii with flights from Oakland California going for as little as $49 USD one way.

The only reason I am interested in this is for the competition from other airlines it might create as well as eventually and hopefully providing cheaper inter island (ie-oahu to maui, maui to kauai, etc)

Here is the link in case any one is interested in plugging in dates

https://www.southwest.com/hawaii/
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Hawaii is already hyper-competitive from North America. It is accommodation that is the bottle neck.

Southwest will not be operating between the islands. To save on training, they insist on only flying 737s, far too big to operate on short inter-island trips. The 737 is also, arguably, too small to be flying to Hawaii when competitors can fill 767s from populated California (although many of the seats are giveaways as part of loyalty programs).

As for cross-border flying, Canadians can avoid the 7.5% intra-USA flight tax by flying direct from Canada. Allegiant learned that the hard way and ended up abandoned Bellingham to Hawaii. Although to my surprise, Southwest has not yet canceled their Buffalo to California flights.

Look at 737 only Ryanair to the Canary Islands, off the coast of Morocco. No inter-island flights and very limited flights from Ireland and the UK. Dito Airbus 320 Easyjet.

I really wish Hawaiian would fly to Canada and offer cheap flights to Australia. Canada-California Australia is OK, but Canada-Hawaii-Australia would be better.
Toronto is a very small part of Canada
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alohamom wrote: It has been in the works for a while but today Southwest airlines has opened up their first routes to Hawaii with flights from Oakland California going for as little as $49 USD one way.

The only reason I am interested in this is for the competition from other airlines it might create as well as eventually and hopefully providing cheaper inter island (ie-oahu to maui, maui to kauai, etc)

Here is the link in case any one is interested in plugging in dates

https://www.southwest.com/hawaii/
200$ round trip and still asking for cheaper ? Lol they are operating an aircraft not a bus.
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MonctonMan wrote: The 737 is also, arguably, too small to be flying to Hawaii when competitors can fill 767s from populated California (although many of the seats are giveaways as part of loyalty programs).
I wouldnt say it's a problem. Many competitors, such as United, are operating 737s along with their 767/777 to Hawaii.
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Latitude57 wrote: 200$ round trip and still asking for cheaper ? Lol they are operating an aircraft not a bus.
I am hoping that Hawaiian lowers its inter island flight prices in response to Southwest having much cheaper prices. Prime time inter island seats can be as much a $350+ one way on Hawaiian depending on the time of year.
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Latitude57 wrote: 200$ round trip and still asking for cheaper ? Lol they are operating an aircraft not a bus.
My buddy was trying to meet me in Hawaii last year and it was $900USD from Florida for him.
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Not from the US continent, I’m speaking of inter island flights such as Honolulu to Hilo, etc. I have flown Hawaiian on their inter island routes several times and havent paid more than around 100$ one way, during the peak season.
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MonctonMan wrote:
Southwest will not be operating between the islands. To save on training, they insist on only flying 737s, far too big to operate on short inter-island trips. The 737 is also, arguably, too small to be flying to Hawaii when competitors can fill 767s from populated California (although many of the seats are giveaways as part of loyalty programs).

I can't ignore this much bad information.
- NO mainland carrier flies inter-island.
- 737's aren't too big for inter-island - older model 737s were frequently used on inter-island routes by Aloha. Problem is frequent, short-cycles are inefficient and primarily due to the engines uses on more modern 737s which aren't optimal for short-hop/quick-turn frequent flights.
- 737 only fleet commonality saves on FAR more than just training - it saves on maintenance and all sorts of planning.
- What objective measure makes the 737 "too small" to fly to Hawaii? It is used to its max range for almost every other flight application - Hawaii isn't special!
- Regardless that 767s are hardly the mainstay of anyone's fleet anymore, having MORE capacity per plane doesn't make an airline always more competitive.
- "Many of the seats are giveaways" - really?? Some, sure, but that is a gross generalization particularly when linked with 767s.
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robsaw wrote: - What objective measure makes the 737 "too small" to fly to Hawaii? It is used to its max range for almost every other flight application - Hawaii isn't special!
The 737 doesn't have a RAT, and hence, they have to run the APU for the entire flight. No APU = no dispatch.

737NG's were a marginal operation from places like YYC. Seats had to be blocked off or bags left behind, sometimes unpredictably due to forecast winds and alternates.

In a fleet such as Southwest's, only a very small number of 737s will be Hawaii-capable (ie: ETOPS certified/maintained, overwater equipment, etc.). So any glitch and they can't just substitute another plane. A big network airline with (for example) 767s will often have their whole fleet overwater/ETOPS capable and can swap planes with ease.

Galleys are pretty small on 737s generally but still larger on 767s which have traditionally been used for long-haul services. So food and beverage service can be comparatively limited.

Washrooms on the 737Max are pretty tiny and the aircraft itself seems to be very heavily disfavoured in its contemporary configurations for that reason by obese people.

Last but not least, a lot of frequent flyers are rather accustomed to getting cheap or complimentary upgrades on widebody planes which have far more business class seats or even lie-flat beds. The 737s generally contain very few premium seats, and almost certainly would not have satellite based WiFi, but rather, just ground-based GoGo or similar. So those sorts of people get a bit grumpy when 737s get put on routes that formerly would have been served by planes that were usually configured for long overseas flights with more premium traffic.

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