Two months ago, Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) finally began flying to Hawaii, nearly a year and a half after publicly announcing its intention to serve the popular vacation destination. That said, the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX, which accounts for nearly 5% of Southwest’s fleet, has limited the carrier’s ability to grow in Hawaii so far.
Nevertheless, Southwest Airlines remains committed to becoming an even bigger player in Hawaii once its 737 MAX fleet gets back in the air. In fact, last weekend, the airline announced that it plans to add Hilo to its route network in the near future. That would give the popular discount airline five destinations within Hawaii eventually, up from its previous plan of four.
When Southwest Airlines first decided to fly to Hawaii, it was mainly contemplating flights from some of its biggest West Coast markets (Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, and San Jose) to the top four tourist destinations in Hawaii (Honolulu, Kahului, Kona, and Lihue).
However, the carrier later decided to enter the interisland market as well. Hawaiian Holdings (NASDAQ:HA) has dominated interisland travel in recent years, and Southwest’s management saw an opportunity to stimulate demand with lower fares. Southwest Airlines began flying four daily round trips between Honolulu and Kahului late last month, and it added four daily round trips between Honolulu and Kona on May 12.
https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/05/19/southwest-airlines-expands-its-hawaii-plans.aspx