The End of Cheap Inter-Island Flights in Hawaii?

One of the joys of going to Hawaii is the ability to island hop. You could be in Honolulu one day and on the island of Maui the next. Each island has its own vibe and personality.

You could do it cheaply since inter-island flights are fairly inexpensive…but those days might be coming to a close.

According to some Hawaii experts, the two main carriers on the islands, Southwest and Hawaiian Air, have reduced the number of one-way tickets between the islands. On the grand scale of things, the flights are still relatively cheap. But some seats have gone from $39 one-away to $64.

And it might get pricey to island-hop from Waikiki to Maui to Kauai.

Many believe that a reduction in the $40 range for one-way tickets will only go up. They believe that the $39 fare will entice many passengers and when they get into the airline’s computer system and find that most of the low, low fares are gone they don’t mind settling for the $64 fare.

“They got to figure out a way to make money and what they figured out is they can use lower fares to attract people into their systems and can leverage it up to a reasonable fair where they can make some money,” one Hawaii travel expert said to Hawaii News Now.