Southwest is cutting back on inter-island flying across the Hawaiian archipelago to make room for its red eye operation in April 2025. The changes involve significant reductions in service between Honolulu and Kahului, Kona, and Lihue by as much as 30%. AeroRoutes first spotted the change in the Airline’s summer schedule two weeks ago, which was promptly picked up by Hawaiian travel blogs, and subsequently by other local news outlets, all of whom were disheartened by the news.
The Dallas-based carrier has been talking about upping its red eye game since the end of the summer, but what remained to be seen was where the Airline would free up block time to service those routes. Well, now we have our answer: robbing Hawaiians of easy access to inter-island flying is certainly one way to do it.
It isn’t just inter-island flying that Southwest is cutting back on, however. The Airline is also making big changes to its Hawaii flying schedule in-general, including:
- Flights from Honolulu to Oakland and Phoenix will reduce to once daily
- Flights from Honolulu to Las Vegas will increase from twice daily to three times daily (presumably one of which will be a red eye) 👁️
- Flights from Kahului to Las Vegas and Oakland will reduce to once daily
- Flights from Kahului to San Jose-SJC will increase from twice weekly to five times weekly (presumably all of which will be red eyes) 👁️
- Flights from Kona to Los Angeles will return with a once daily, weekend-only schedule (presumably both of which will be red eyes) 👁️
- Flights from Kona to Sacramento will debut at a frequency of once daily (presumably a red eye) 👁️
- Flights from Lihue to Los Angeles will return at a frequency of once daily (presumably a red eye) 👁️
To add to the fun, the Airline will also suspend services from both Kahului to Long Beach and Kona to Oakland.
But why not take the block time from somewhere else?
When Southwest first started flying in Hawaii, it was 2019, pre-pandemic, and quite honestly a different era. It came in guns blazing with its usual goal of disrupting the market with low fares, stimulating untapped demand, and building brand loyalty. And for much of 2019, those tactics worked well.
In the aftermath of the pandemic, as costs rose across the country, costs really increased in Hawaii. Quite literally, everything is more expensive there. This increased the level of difficulty for the Airline to maintain its status quo of low fares and drumming up demand.
This isn’t “a Southwest problem,” however. Airlines are pulling back on flying to and from the Hawaiian archipelago in the aggregate. Last week, Hawaiian (Airlines) announced that it was pulling the plug on its Honolulu to Austin route. And earlier last month, it discontinued service from Kahului to San Diego and reduced service between Honolulu and Seattle.
Let’s talk about Elliott
Travel patterns are constantly evolving, and Southwest is certainly struggling to understand key changes to some of those patterns right now. The Company’s entire West Coast operation—once a profit machine—isn’t performing anywhere near expectations. Operating revenue is down five-tenths of a percent year-over-year. And now, rumors of “voluntary separation” are circulating across the Airline’s operation.
Part of Elliott’s pitch to the Company in October was that airlines that refuse to adapt despite softening demand are the ones most likely to get into hot water. Thankfully, this is not a Spirit-like situation. I’ll hold short of thanking an activist investor for spurring major changes to the Airline’s operation like this one, but I’d be lying if I didn’t think Elliott wasn’t lurking in the shadows here.
Elliott has been pushing Southwest to make strategic changes to improve its bottom line since the spring, and reducing unprofitable routes is one way to achieve that goal. In the case of these routes specifically, it appears we have some clues as to how the Airline is going to schedule that newly found block time: by rolling out a string of red eyes 👁️
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