Viewpoints: On Southwest’s Arrival in Hawaii

By Brian Berusch

HONOLULU -- When Southwest Airlines began selling seats on ATA Airlines’ flights to Honolulu on Feb. 4, it opened up Hawaii as a new frontier for the low-cost carrier.

“Southwest has very loyal passengers, and it can only help us,” said Marsha Weinert, tourism liaison for Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle. “An increase in service is a positive overall for the state. And they serve some places we have been hoping to increase service from, as well.”

But not everyone sees it that way. Some tourism officials here say they are concerned the move will result in price wars between the carriers that serve the Hawaii market.

“We don’t actively oppose the Southwest-ATA code-share agreement, but when a new carrier brings in more or new people, it will change the fare structures,” said Frank Haas, marketing director for the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA).

“We’ve seen that trouble before and hope to actively support the legacy carriers [such as United, Delta and Northwest] that helped us through rougher times.”

Haas was referring to the price wars of the 1990s in which the airlines responded to reduced West Coast fares by decreasing the number of seats they offered to Hawaii.

Haas said the HTA “will do everything it can to market the legacy carriers who bring the growing number of visitors to Hawaii.”

“We won’t subsidize any airline, but we will spend dollars on marketing efforts,” he said.

The HTA spent $500,000 on airline cooperative marketing in 2004.

Weinert said she can understand why the HTA is concerned for the airlines that have served Hawaii for many years.

“Our legacy airlines are all experiencing problems. [The HTA] needs to ensure that [the carriers] operate, for our sake. But, really, there is nothing the HTA can do, as most of the carriers are in Chapter 11.”

ATA also announced that it is increasing service in and out of Hawaii. The carrier will launch a new Phoenix-Honolulu flight as well as another daily flight from Los Angeles to Kahului, Maui, beginning on April 3. Both flights will originate in Indianapolis, where ATA is headquartered.

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