dlaue

In real fairness, nobody will argue that San Diego's airport deserves an award for being comfortable, easy to navigate, or not crowded.

tmiw

Eh, T2 is now pretty decent after having been remodeled and expanded. It's really more a function of T1 having been built more than 50 years ago than anything else.

Troopers

It's apparent the OP was exaggerating and being sarcastic. SAN is universally a for WN passengers...lots of threads about it.

Best/Worst WN Terminals
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/southwest-airlines-rapid-rewards/1521890-southwest-san-diego.html
san diego - Fly By Lane ?
Southwest using gate 11 in San Diego (SAN)
Connection at SAN

tphuang

SMF-OGG is a AS monopoly. WN picked the 4 markets where they are strong, with no legacy presence and many AS monopolies. This entrance is part of their California turf war with AS to drive down yields on their most profitable markets.

garykung

You don't really want 2 tourist locations fighting against each other.

If I ever need to reach out to WN, I would suggest Gary Kelly to resign instead discussing the SMF market

The problem is when it is underserved, the airspace may not be able to handle additional traffic even WN is willing to invest.

(SMF shares its airspace with SFO/OAK/SJC traffic.)

Yes.

Airlines have many reasons to make equipment change decisions. When an airline permanently downgauges the equipment for a particular route, it is a good indicator that it is not viable to use the same equipment.

(FWIW - there are demands from SMF to Hawaii. But in the perspective of HA, it is not viable to use wide-body but narrow-body instead.)

Cutting fees won't help when you don't have enough revenue.

DenverBrian

By that logic, there would be no LAS-HNL flights on other carriers now, but HA does very well. And there would be no WN flights LAS-MCO or or LAS-MSY.

garykung

Of course there are other reasons why LAS is not a good starting point. This is just one of them.

DenverBrian

Then maybe start with one of those instead of this illogical one? <shrugs>

formeraa

WN is taking a conservative stance on the 737 MAX Hawaii operations by not including LAS or PHX. They probably want to see how the aircraft performs in practice before using it in a hot/high environment. PHX is probably at the limit of the range in practice (and please don't quote Boeing specs here, I'm well aware of them). Perhaps the MAX will magically overperform like the 757 did, but why take chances?

Texas Booster

Alaska is offering more $169 flights to several HA airports, and even a $329 from Austin. I still can see a number of $276 OW fares from Austin, and a RT for about $600.

Looks like they will be pulling in travelers that won't wait for WN to set the HA schedule.

aaronp84

The Max range is 3,850 nm, this opens up routes such as Denver to Honolulu which is 3,365 nm (purely based on math and ignoring weather). I would think LAS/PHX/etc will not be an issue once they get settled in on the routes.

chuckworth

Seen continuous on again/off again sales by AS/HA/DL/UA as each one is jockeying against the others to protect/expand their turf on the West Coast to/from Hawaii routes. AS had $99 fares appear a couple of times this year. WN will just add to that whenever their schedule is announced and fares go on sale.

MrMan

What approval is needed for a domestic flight?

garykung

I believe it was an issue of the choice of words.

Instead of approval, because WN does not have any overwater ops (IIRC), so WN has to make sure all equipment and personnel are up to the overwater ops standard.

justhere

WN has plenty of over water ops. How do you think they get to all those Caribbean destinations? I think you are thinking of ETOPS for the longer over water operation needed to fly to and from Hawaii.