Cledaybuck

I think it very much depends on the market. AS used to fly routes like SJC/OAK-OGG which they no longer do.

Boraxo

Hawaii and Mexico are rapidly pricing themselves out of the market. Even if you somehow find a cheap room the restaurants and everything else is priced as high as SF, NYC, etc. It's not worth it when you can save a lot by flying to Europe where there are plenty of summer beaches. And if you have more time there is South Asia as well.

AA, DL and especially UA have been making money on these routes for years, not to mention HA despite new entrants that come and go. There is only so long you can burn money on $99 fares and bare bones service does not appeal to everyone. I would never fly WN to Hawaii even with CPs

dlaue

We have been traveling to Hawaii since the 1970s and have always heard the "Hawaii is expensive" refrain.
To us, it never appeared to be THAT more expensive than any large US city and we traveled there frequently.
We visited Hawaii 5 times during the pandemic and found prices to be very reasonable for hotels, airfare, and rental cars.
However, on our last trip to Waikiki 3 months ago we found the prices of everything to be noticeably higher than pre-pandemic...perhaps 15% higher or more. This may be a deterrent to Southwest customers.

Also, I suspect that many airline seats to Hawaii are occupied with persons traveling on points or with a companion pass, which are not revenue generating.

Southwest's Hawaii service was begun, in large part, to give Southwest Rapid Rewards customers a domestic aspirational vacation destination. The lack of such a perk was a major criticism of the Company Club/Rapid Rewards program after the bankruptcy of Southwest's partner, ATA airlines.