New Hawaii Airlines and Their Effect on Ticket Prices

There is now more reason for you to visit Hawaii in 2018. This year, newly opened airline companies offer more flights to the island, promising a comfortable journey with an affordable price.

Southwest Airlines

Just as 2017 is closing, in a gathering in Los Angeles,  Southwest Airlines just launched its newest service to Hawaii. This ended years of speculation from patrons and potential passengers. According to news sources, the airline company will start their ticket sales earlier this year. The service will start as soon as the company secures FAA approval to operate between the mainland and Hawaii.

Executive Vice President of Southwest Airlines, Andrew Watterson tackled the ‘Southwest Effect’ on Hawaii News Now. He said that their average fares is lower than other airlines. “Low costs come from very efficient operations. We pay our people well, but we work them hard and we work the airplanes hard. So that leads to lows costs so we have lower than our competitors so we’ll be able to bring lower ticket prices.” He added.

The West Coast will experience this innovation earlier, as first Southwest Airlines flights to Hawaii will be dawning from California. The company is also eyeing to offer inter-island transfers as well.

Scoot

Furthermore, a budget airline company called Scoot stepped up to the game. Scoot is the low-cost arm of the Singapore Airlines Group. Hawaii is Scoot’s first U.S. destination, with four days weekly of flights offered. They open their doors for passengers who want to travel from Honolulu to Singapore through Osaka.

The inaugural flight set for Dec. 19.  Their company has a Christmas promotion. They gave away $80 one-way fares from Honolulu to Osaka and $200 one-way fares to Singapore.

“We are pleased to enter the U.S. market through Hawaii”, Lee Lik Hsin, Scoot CEO said in an interview. “We’ve heard so much excitement among our frequent fliers since announcing the Honolulu route and we wanted to offer Hawaii locals a chance to experience our airline and visit one of our key destinations at an affordable rate”. He added.

Virgin America

On the other hand, more airlines are expanding their flights to Hawaii too. Companies decided to increase the number of direct flights to and from Honolulu and other main cities of Hawaii. It is because of the massive volume of tourists these previous years.

Virgin America is now offering non-stop, daily flights between San Francisco and Kona starting December 14.

Delta Air Lines

Last December 20, United Airlines began expanding its capacity of flying in tourists to Hawaii by 20 percent overall. It adds more non-stop flights to the islands from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Denver. One day later, Delta Air Lines began their non-stop daily flights from Seattle to Lihue.

All of these developments attributed to the boost of Hawaii’s tourism industry throughout the years. In 2016, Hawaii achieved a new record of 8,934,277 visitors.

These added and expanded flight offerings are just one proof that people from across the globe wants to visit Hawaii. Indeed, these developments are a great way to finish 2017 on a high note . It is also a springboard to further strengthen Hawaii’s tourism as 2018 begins.