Southwest Airlines said it plans to resume its expansion in Hawaii next month, which had been delayed due to the grounding of Boeing 737 Max planes.
Gary C. Kelly, chief executive officer, said the carrier, which began Hawaii service in March, was “very pleased with the results from our initial waves of Hawaii service.”
“Demand for Southwest service to, from and within Hawaii is robust,” Kelly said Thursday during a conference call to discuss the company’s second-quarter earnings. “The load factors are significantly higher than what we are experiencing across the system. Keep in mind we just announced
record load factors for the entire company, and our Hawaii business is surpassing that.”
Southwest, based in
Dallas, posted net income
of $741 million, or $1.37 per diluted share as compared with $733 million, or $1.27 per diluted share, during the second quarter of 2018.
The company also reported second-quarter 2019 total operating revenues increased 2.9%, year over year, to an all-time quarterly record $5.9 billion, despite losses due to flight schedule adjustments caused by the 737 Max groundings.
The Federal Aviation
Administration grounded 737 Max 8 and Max 9 aircraft March 13 following a deadly crash in Ethiopia and an
earlier one in Indonesia in October. While Southwest doesn’t yet fly Max planes in Hawaii, the carrier has had to stretch other planes in its fleet to cover for the Max aircraft that it removed from its schedule now through Jan. 5.
During the second quarter, Southwest experienced about 20,000 flight cancellations, when the normal is in the 3,000 range. The carrier pinned the bulk of these cancellations on the grounding of all 34 of its Max aircraft during the second quarter. Southwest has
753 aircraft in its fleet.
Southwest announced Thursday that it plans to cease operations at Newark Liberty International Airport and consolidate its New York City presence at New York LaGuardia Airport
effective Nov. 3.
Mexico and Hawaii fared better. Southwest announced its plans to offer more service to Mexico, via Cozumel International Airport, in the first quarter of 2020, subject to requisite governmental approvals. With Cozumel it would serve four destinations in Mexico, with year-round service from Houston Hobby.
While Kelly acknowledged that the lack of available
aircraft, due to the Max groundings, resulted in expansion delays to Hawaii, he said Southwest is “excited to resume growth plans next month with the first of several intended announcements.”
Southwest already has
16 interisland flights, or 1,800 daily interisland air seats. The carrier has added 2,100 daily trans-Pacific air seats through the 12 daily trans-Pacific flights that it offers to and from Hawaii. But Southwest soon plans to begin offering service to Hawaii from both San Diego and Sacramento, Calif., as well as bring Southwest service to both Lihue and Hilo.
Kelly said the carrier would “provide details of the next phases of Hawaii flying in the coming weeks and months, as we put new flights out for sale.”
Hawaii has been hearing that for a while now. The previously announced routes were expected to appear on the schedule with a much shorter lag than it’s been since Southwest entered the Hawaii market March 17 with service between Honolulu and Oakland, Calif.
Southwest started service between Oakland and Maui on April 7. The carrier began flying between Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport and Honolulu on May 5 and began service between San Jose, Calif., and Maui on May 26. On April 28 Southwest begin interisland service between Honolulu and Kahului, which it expanded May 12, when the carrier launched service between Honolulu and Kona.
The good news for those who have been waiting for Southwest to expand its
Hawaii service is that the carrier proved it could be nimble when it launched service between Honolulu and Oakland just 13 days after it started selling tickets for the route.
