Southwest Airlines launched its Hawaii interisland flights on Sunday. These flights provide service between Kahului (Maui) (OGG) and Honolulu (Oahu) (HNL). Southwest just recently started service between California and the Hawaiian Islands offering nonstop flights from Oakland (OAK) to Honolulu and Kahului.

SWA Inaugural Hawaii Flight
Southwest's inaugural Flight 6808 landed in Honolulu on March 17th, 2019. Photo: Southwest Airlines.

What are the details?

According to KOHN2, Southwest's inaugural Hawaii interisland flight took off from Kahului at 7 am local time on Sunday morning. Moving forward, Southwest will offer four daily flights each way between Maui and Oahu.

SWA Inaugural Interisland Flight
Passengers can now choose Southwest Airlines for their travels between Honolulu and Maui. Photo: Southwest Airlines.

The flights from Kahului to Honolulu depart at 7 am, 10:08 am, 1:50 pm, and 5 pm. The Kahului-bound flights leave Honolulu at 8:30 am, 12:10 pm, 3:25 pm, and 7:05 pm.

Based on the information provided on Southwest Airlines' website, the airline will add service between Honolulu and Kona (Island of Hawaii) (KOA) on May 14th. As a result, passengers will also be able to travel between Kona and Kahului on Southwest Airlines with a stop at Honolulu.

In addition, SWA will launch service between San Jose (SJC) and Honolulu on May 5th, and between San Jose and Kahului on May 26th.

The inaugural interisland flight

As we are all well aware, Southwest Airlines loves to celebrate. Accordingly, its first Hawaii interisland flight was also a small celebration.

In fact, KHON2 reported, that Southwest greeted its passengers with hula and music at the gates. The airline themselves provided Krispy Kreme donuts to passengers departing from Kahului and Leonard's bakery pastries to passengers departing from Honolulu.

SWA Inaugural Hawaii Interisland Flight
Southwest Airlines' gate was filled with music on Sunday. Photo: Southwest Airlines.

Apparently, passengers really enjoyed Southwest's inaugural interisland flight. As a matter of fact, a couple of passengers praised the airline according to KHON2.

One of the passengers noted that "[i]t was a great time, they gave us free donuts, free coffee - seats were readily available and the flight time was quicker than [...] expected."

Another passenger mentioned that "[t]here was no assigned seating and everyone got in and off way faster than when [she] flew like say on Hawaiian Airlines."

All in all, it definitely seems like Southwest's first Hawaii interisland flights were a big success.

Will there be a fare war?

Southwest's ticket prices for its first interisland flights were extremely low. Hawaii News Now reported that some passengers paid as little as $29 for a one-way ticket. Other passengers paid $59. This is still fairly cheap.

SWA will most likely not be able to keep ticket prices this low forever. Nevertheless, there will probably be a fare war between Southwest Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines as they strive to remain the airline of choice for interisland travel. But this is good news for passengers, as they will be able to purchase cheaper tickets for Hawaii interisland flights.

Are you going to take advantage of Southwest Airlines' Hawaii interisland flights?