Entering the Hawaii market is a ‘high priority’ for Southwest Airlines, CEO Gary Kelly says.
Speaking during an annual shareholders meeting in Phoenix on Wednesday, Kelly said Honolulu is definitately on the radar but offered no timeline on when it plans to launch Hawaii flights.
"We’re deciding what our plans are for 2018 and Hawaii is important to us," he said.
"We still have a lot of work to do and we don’t have a committed work plan yet on Hawaii … but it’s pretty high on the priority list.”
Whenever that is, Southwest will use its upcoming Boeing 737 MAX jets on Hawaii routes which will likely start from the West Coast.
Southwest’s first Boeing 737 MAX aircraft arrives in October and it expects to have 14 operational by the year-end.
Kelly said Southwest’s net income was up 2.9% to $2.24 billion on revenue of $20.4 billion.
