Southwest Airlines in Hawaii: capacity, competition still growing

Southwest Airlines made its highly anticipated and long awaited entry into the Hawaiian market in Mar-2019, but its expansion to Hawaii was curtailed by the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX.

Despite a slower than expected roll-out of its service to the Hawaiian Islands, Southwest's entry has still created headwinds in the market as the extra capacity continues to pressure fares. Now Southwest plans to move ahead with the addition of more routes to Hawaii, which means that existing operators will continue to feel pressure from that additional capacity in the market.

Hawaiian Airlines is bearing the brunt of Southwest's expansion from the mainland to Hawaii and in inter-island markets. And that pressure shows no signs of abating for the foreseeable future.