Southwest filed its spring break schedule last week, extending its booking window from ending March 10 to April 5. This was a big schedule update, and there is a lot to parse. But one thing that stood out to me right away was the further downsizing of the interisland operation in Hawaiʻi.
In the summer of 2023, Southwest’s interisland operation peaked with 64 daily flights between the islands. That had dropped to 50 in April 2025, where it remained until this new schedule for next March which has a mere 32 daily. Interisland flying has now been consolidated to only include flights from Honolulu to the four main neighbor island airports of Hilo, Kahului, Kona, and Līhuʻe. All flying between the neighbor islands themselves has been canceled.
Daily Southwest Interisland Flights in Hawaiʻi
Data via Cirium and Southwest
But this is more than just a reduction. It’s a structural change in how the interisland flying network operates. Take a look at Honolulu departures by hour over these three different schedules.
Daily Southwest Interisland Departures from Honolulu by Hour
Data via Cirium and Southwest, chart via Claude
At its peak in 2023, the Southwest interisland schedule was smoothed throughout the day. By 2025, you could see some peaks forming, but there was still a variety of flying at different times. Now, we are in a very clear bank structure where all four other airports get flights at the same four times. There is no longer a morning departure bank from Honolulu, so the airplanes start their day on the neighbor islands before coming to Honolulu.
The end result is something that will generally appeal to the very price-sensitive locals who care less about schedule, but it further cements Hawaiian’s position as the airline that makes the interisland economy go. For Southwest, the local market looks more like an afterthought.
This interisland flying plan is going to largely serve connecting markets from the mainland, and that is probably what it should be doing anyway. Honolulu becomes something of a transit hub with service from 10 mainland cities… four of which — Burbank, Long Beach, Ontario, San Jose, have no service nonstop to the neighbor islands at all.
The mainland market has evolved as well with some pretty significant swings in capacity over the last few years, including massive changes in departure times now that redeyes exist in the Southwest network.
Looking at a Saturday in the summer of 2023, Southwest had 13 departures from Hawaiʻi to the mainland before 11am and 17 between 11am and 4pm. Next March, there will be only two departures before 11am, 16 between 11am and 5pm, and then 10 redeyes. The destinations on the mainland have also shifted.
Weekly Southwest Departures to Hawaiʻi by Mainland Origin
Data via Cirium and Southwest
Think of Las Vegas – Honolulu as a hub-to-hub market. Las Vegas remains solidly the most important connecting point for travel east of the Rockies, and it maintains flying that doesn’t exist in other hubs. That includes the only mainland flight to Hilo as well as a new westbound redeye from Vegas to Honolulu (which is beloved by the kamaʻāina who fly Hawaiian already).
San Diego has now surged into a very clear second place with flying now to all four main neighbor island airports (Kona and Līhuʻe are new weekend flights). While this will take some connections, this looks more like Southwest fighting for the local San Diego market with Alaska in general.
On the flip side, you can see just how far the Bay Area has fallen. Oakland had the first flight on Southwest to the islands, but it is now a fraction of what it used to be. San Jose has also fallen dramatically, now only having a Honolulu flight. Even Sacramento is down.
In Southern California, it’s a mixed bag. LAX has lost most of its service over time, now down to only a poorly-timed daily Honolulu flight (westbound in the afternoon, redeye back) and a Saturday-only flight to Kahului, Kona, and Līhuʻe. Long Beach too has fallen, now with only 5x weekly to Honolulu. But that 5x weekly pattern has now spread to both Burbank and Ontario as well, so there is some good news for those who like those airports.
With these moves, Southwest has become a niche player in the interisland market and a more focused player from the mainland to the islands. Las Vegas and Honolulu will be the two big connecting points, but then the airports in the west that have strong demand to Hawaiʻi will still have flights… just fewer of them (except in San Diego).
That’s a far cry from what people thought would happen when Southwest first entered the market, but it did not make the kind of inroads that it had originally hoped to see.
