Southwest cuts popular Hawaii route, adds 3 new seasonal flights

26.03.2024 - 17:47 / thepointsguy.com / Airlines

There's going to be a little less "luv" in Hawaii this upcoming winter.

That's because Southwest Airlines is scrapping one of its routes to the Aloha State, as first seen in Cirium schedules and later confirmed by a carrier spokesperson.

The Dallas-based carrier will exit the 2,485-mile route from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Maui's Kahului Airport (OGG), effective April 20.

Originally, Southwest was planning to resume this winter seasonal service in October, but the route was just cut completely as part of the airline's schedule extension to Jan. 6, 2025.

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Southwest will continue to serve Maui from five points on the mainland: Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Oakland, Sacramento and San Jose in California. From Los Angeles, the carrier will continue to serve just one destination in Hawaii — Honolulu — next winter.

For Southwest, this represents a bigger network realignment as the carrier retreats from one of its newest mainland gateways to Hawaii. While Los Angeles has long been an operating base for Southwest, the carrier only started flying to Hawaii from there in 2021.

Announced as part of a larger pandemic-era expansion in Hawaii, Southwest said that the city would become a mainland gateway with four new Hawaii routes to Honolulu, Maui, Kona and Lihue.

Next winter — just three years later — only one of these routes will remain in service (Honolulu). Kona and Lihue aren't on the docket to resume in the winter (they might return in the summer), and the Maui service is officially being cut.

While that's a bummer for Southwest travelers based in L.A., there will still be plenty of connectivity between the city and Hawaii. American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines and United Airlines all fly from Los Angeles to Maui, Kona and Lihue. (Alaska Airlines also flies between L.A. and Maui.)

With so much competition to Maui, Southwest likely felt that it couldn't generate enough demand at high enough fares to warrant flying from L.A. The carrier declined to provide a statement explaining the cut.

But, it's not all bad news for Southwest's network. The airline is adding three new seasonal routes to its schedule as part of the recent schedule extension.

The carrier will connect Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) with Omaha's Eppley Airfield (OMA) beginning in November. These flights will operate just once a week (at most) during the winter. The airline will go up against ultra-low-cost carrier Allegiant Air on this new 772-mile route.

Elsewhere, the airline will add limited-time service from Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) to Richmond International Airport (RIC)