Summary
- A total of 1,000 flights will be operated between Honolulu and Kahului this month.
- Hawaiian Airlines will operate 65.9% of flights, offering 84,352 seats on this route, using Boeing 717-200s.
- Southwest Airlines will operate 34.1% of the flights, offering 59,675 seats on this route using the larger Boeing 737 MAX 8s.
Last year’s most popular domestic route in the United States, Honolulu to Kahului, has 1,000 flights scheduled to operate in August alone. These flights will be operated by two carriers, Hawaiian Airlines and Southwest Airlines, which together offer tens of thousands of seats on this short but extremely popular route.
1,000 flights in August
The route connecting
Honolulu International Airport
(HNL) to Kahului Airport (OGG) has increased in popularity in recent years. While it did not make it into the top 10 busiest domestic routes in the US in 2019, last year, it held the top spot.
|
Year |
Position Held |
Info |
|---|---|---|
|
2019 |
Not in the Top 10 |
|
|
2022 |
6th busiest domestic route in US |
|
|
2023 |
The busiest domestic route in the US |
3,612,212 million seats |
Related
3 Million Plus Seats: The 5 Most Popular US Domestic Air Routes
There are shake-ups in the list compared to pre-pandemic levels.
Data from Cirium indicates that the route remains popular, and operations on this route, between
and
, add up to a staggering 1,000 scheduled flights just in the month of August.
Photo: Steve Heap | Shutterstock
With the two carriers’ massive operations on this route this month, there are a grand total of 144,027 seats available. Data further indicates that
Kahului is the second-busiest airport in Hawaii after Honolulu
and handles over around seven million passengers annually.
Hawaiian Airlines operations
Hawaii’s own Hawaiian Airlines accounts for the bulk of the total flights scheduled on this route, with 659 flights (65.9%). The carrier operates between 20 and 23 flights depending on the day of the week.
These flights will be exclusively operated using the airline’s smaller Boeing 717-200s, which account for 84,352 seats (58.57%) on this route. Hawaiian’s 717s are configured to accommodate up to 128 passengers.
|
Cabin Class |
Capacity |
Configuration |
|---|---|---|
|
First Class |
8 |
2-2 |
|
Main Cabin |
120 |
2-3 |
While the aircraft type is quite old, Hawaiian Airlines, in 2015, put its entire fleet of Boeing 717s through an interior refreshment process to retrofit new seats and other features such as refreshed tray tables and color schemes.
Photo: MKPhoto12 | Shutterstock
While the aircraft is small, it allows the airline to utilize this type of aircraft to offer quick and frequent hops between the islands in the surrounding region, which is an essential part of Hawaiian’s operations.
Southwest Airlines Operations
Southwest Airlines is the second carrier to operate passenger service on this route, with the remaining 341 flights (34.1%) scheduled for this month. However, since the airline exclusively utilizes the larger Boeing 737 MAX 8s, it is able to offer a total seating capacity of 59,675 seats (41.43%) on this route.
Since Southwest operates as a true low-cost carrier, the airline’s 737 MAX 8s only have one cabin and can accommodate 175 passengers in the standard 3-3 configuration, with a few seats featuring extra legroom.
Photo: dorengo5 | Shutterstock
Southwest consistently operates 11 flights on this route every day. Considering services to Kahului are one of many that Southwest offers, the airline has become the second-largest airline in Hawaii as of 2021.
It is possible that Southwest might face increased challenges and competition in the near future due to Hawaiian’s merger with
.
Apart from Hawaiian and Southwest, this route also sees considerable cargo services operated by Aloha Air Cargo Airlines, which utilizes Boeing 737 freighter jets.
