Southwest to expand inter-island Hawaii services in 2020

Southwest Airlines is expanding further into Hawaii, with new service to, from, and within Hawaii launching in mid-January 2020.

The new services include daily flights between Sacramento International Airport (SMF) and Honolulu, along with nonstop between both of the carrier's Hawaii gateways in the Bay Area, Oakland and San Jose, and both Kauai and the Island of Hawaii.

With these additions, Southwest will operate a total 34 departures a day on inter-island routes, including newly available service between Honolulu and Lihue, as well as Honolulu and Hilo, four times daily in each direction. The airline will also offer non-stop between Kahului and Kona once daily in each direction.

Hawaii service details for a previously-announced gateway San Diego will be announced later.

In October 2017, Southwest shared an intention to begin the technical work to bring capabilities for Hawaii service, applied with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in January 2018, and publicly announced the carrier's initial gateway airports and initial Hawaii airports in spring 2018.

Southwest Airlines first operated Hawaii service on March 17, 2019, from Oakland to Honolulu and currently operates a dozen flights daily between Hawaii and the mainland, while offering 16 interisland departures daily among the islands.

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