Alaska Airlines Ends Two Hawaii Routes
Taylor Rains October 06, 2019
The competition between powerhouse airlines, Alaska and Southwest, is heating up as both continue to fight over the Hawaiian market.
With Southwest on their heels in terms of available seats to Hawaii, Alaska has decided to revamp their California routes, starting with the cancellation of two routine flights between California and Kona.
Starting in March 2020, Alaska will no longer operate nonstop flights between Sacramento and Kona, which it currently flies 3 times a week, and San Francisco and Kona, which it flies 4 times a week. United will become the sole nonstop option to Kona out of San Francisco.
Although this may seem like a step in the wrong direction, it is actually opening doors to more routes out of two other California cities, San Jose and San Diego. Alaska plans to begin service once daily from both cities to each of their four Hawaiian destinations, Kauai, Kona, Maui, and Oahu.
An Alaskan spokesperson commented on the change: “With competition increasing for travel to Hawaii, this schedule positions us to be competitive when guests are booking vacations.”
Alaska’s decision was most likely in response to Southwest’s growth in northern California, with its increasing seat count getting dangerously close to that of Alaska’s.
If one travels to Hawaii Kona is a very small market in comparison to others. It is also the last of the old terminals in the islands and there's a reason for that passenger count. Not sure how much news this is but AS has been very nimble when it comes to their schedules. I would submit wait until there's a slow down and see what happens to all these new flights over.As an unintended consequence has been the upward movement of room rates in response to the increase in visitors. It's getting very crowded to the point if your not staying at one of the upper scale resorts it's Disneyland