Hawai'i seat share questioned

By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Staff Writer

Southwest Airlines customers will be able to fly to Hawai'i on ATA Airlines via Las Vegas in an expanded code-share agreement.

Southwest and ATA began booking customers on each other's flights in February, with passengers having to connect through Chicago's Midway Airport to fly to Hawai'i. Connecting flights from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport to Hawai'i were added to the code-share agreement in April. Dallas-based Southwest Airlines doesn't fly to Hawai'i.

The code-share flights via Las Vegas begin Aug. 4. ATA began daily nonstop flights between Honolulu and Las Vegas in April.

"We are excited to continue to build on the successful code-share service we introduced with Southwest in February," said Stan Hula, ATA's vice president of planning. "The addition of the Las Vegas-to-Honolulu connection service is the next logical step in our code-share program."

This expansion could mean more visitors to Hawai'i because it connects more cities served by Southwest to ATA code-share flights to Honolulu.

But some local tourism officials are tentative and wonder whether the arrangement would hurt other airlines that have long been flying to Hawai'i from Las Vegas.

State tourism liaison Marsha Wienert said the expanded agreement will add a lot more lift from those Southwest markets, while increasing competition for other airlines.

"In this day and age when airlines are struggling to make a profit, having a low-cost carrier enter the marketplace will cause some competition out there," she said. "Competition's always good, but you know the challenges that the airlines have in regards to making ends meet, especially with the cost of fuel. ... But we hope that with the addition of seats, it will mean additional customers rather than a diversion of customers from airline to airline."

Wienert noted that there are customers loyal to Southwest and said this expanded code-sharing agreement will probably open up a new market segment.

"How much more market segment there will be, I don't know," she said.

Hawai'i Tourism Authority president and chief executive Rex Johnson said there's a "pretty good balance" now between airplane seats and places for visitors to stay.

"We are all about wanting any airlines that serve Hawai'i to be profitable (and) to be in the market for a long period of time," he said. "So you don't want to get into a position where you have just tons and tons of seats and people lowering the airfares to the point that seats begin to disappear in the market.

"So while we welcome any new carriers to the field, we sure don't want to see that hurt the profitability of either our local carriers or those who have been with us forever."

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 535-2470.