Southwest Airlines expands daily service to Hawaii

Reuters
Updated
FILE PHOTO: A number of grounded Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft are shown parked at Victorville Airport in Victorville, California

(Reuters) - U.S. budget-friendly carrier Southwest Airlines Co will add another daily flight to Hawaii from January 2020, the company said on Thursday, as it counts on leisure travel from the West Coast to boost its growth.

Southwest started flying to Hawaii from California in March, just days after a fatal crash involving Boeing Co's 737 MAX jet led to the global grounding of the plane, which the company was planning to use for its Hawaii routes.

The new flights, between Sacramento, California, and Honolulu, will intensify competition with Hawaiian Airlines.

Southwest currently serves parts of the islands, including inner-island travel, from Oakland and San Jose in California.

(The story corrects paragraph 2 to say Southwest started flying to Hawaii days "after" a Boeing 737 MAX crash, not "before")

(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)