Hawaiian Airlines Promises It’s Ready for Whatever Southwest Plans
Skift Take
Hawaiian Airlines executives are talking a big game about how they're ready for competition from Southwest Airlines. Is it true? Or are Hawaiian's executives nervous behind the scenes as they prepare for Southwest's Hawaii expansion?
Hawaiian Airlines doesn't know more about Southwest Airlines' plans fly short-haul routes in Hawaii than the public, but the carrier is betting it has the right aircraft and route structure to withstand new competition, its chief financial officer said Tuesday at an investor event.
"We are not strangers to competitors in the inter-island market." Hawaiian CFO Shannon Lei Okinaka said Tuesday at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2018 Transportation Conference. "We have competed against different competitors with different aircraft types and have come out ahead each time."
Southwest has been coy, saying only it plans to fly inter-island routes at some point after it launches longer flights from four California cities — Oakland, San Jose, San Diego and Sacramento, to airports on four Hawaiian islands. Southwest has not said how many short-haul routes it will fly, or which routes it might serve.
Hawaiian is accustomed
