Southwest Airlines isn’t ready yet to announce when it will begin service to
Hawaii, but when it does, bags will fly free and there will be no change fees.
Company spokesman Brad Hawkins, one of a half-dozen Southwest representatives in Honolulu for the Global Tourism Summit, said Tuesday that the airline won’t change its brand when it flies to Hawaii.
“The attraction of Southwest Airlines, and the reason why cities around the country — and around the world, really — are so interested in Southwest is the brand,” Hawkins said in an interview at the Hawai’i Convention Center. “It’s the value; it’s the combination of a low fare, plus the bags fly free and no change fees. So there are no plans in the works to modify what is the magic of Southwest Airlines. We don’t fly anywhere in particular with a different product. Southwest is Southwest. So it would make sense if we were to add Hawaii, we would offer the same Southwest service.”
Hawkins, reiterating what CEO Gary Kelly said on a July earnings conference call, said “it’s not the if, it’s the when now,” regarding Southwest’s plans for Hawaii.
“But we don’t have any announcements ready at the moment,” Hawkins added.
Colorado-based airline consultant Mike Boyd said Southwest is better off not charging checked-bag fees even though other carriers are making anywhere from tens of millions of dollars to more than a billion dollars in such fees annually.
“In the grand scheme of things, Southwest is making millions of extra dollars by not changing for (the first two checked) bags because they’re flying people who wouldn’t have flown them otherwise,” Boyd said. “Southwest doesn’t have silly change fees. They don’t gouge you if your plans change. They don’t charge for luggage. That convenience alone puts thousands of more people on their flights every week than they would have otherwise.”
Southwest Airlines representatives have attended the annual tourism conference in Honolulu before, but this is the first time the company has been a major sponsor of the event.
“We’ve been coming here for years, learning about the islands, learning about the marketplace, building relationships,” Hawkins said. “The sponsorship this year is really a reflection of our gratitude for the support of HTA (Hawaii Tourism Authority) and also the value that we see in the conference. There’s been a lot of corporate narrative by Southwest about Hawaii. So the timing made sense for us to show our appreciation and our support of HTA and really be more of a visible part of the community of travel and hospitality partners here even though we don’t have an announced intention yet of serving Hawaii.”
Hawkins wouldn’t be pinned down on a time frame, but indicated that service to Hawaii could not begin any earlier than 2018 due to necessary aircraft certification.
He said Southwest can’t talk about fares in advance but said the airline’s goal is to be competitive.
“Our goal is to offer value that no one else offers, and we have the reach of our fleet and our giant network of 99 cities across 10 countries,” he said.
Hawkins said the airline realizes that Hawaii is culturally different from other destinations.
“Hawaii is so different and we recognize that, and we’re here celebrating the culture and learning the differences and the intricacies in the market,” he said. “But in some respects it’s exactly the same as everywhere else. People value good service, reliability, a network of destinations they want to travel to, comfort, low fares, that full matrix. So we will work to make our decisions to introduce Southwest at the invitation of the Hawaii marketplace at a time that makes sense for us and for the marketplace.”
