"Thumbs up'' from FAA on Hawaii test flights for Southwest Airlines
Dallas, TEXAS — Southwest Airlines received a "thumbs up'' from the FAA on its Hawaii test flights and is now awaiting formal approval, CEO Gary Kelly told employees at a rally in Dallas Monday.
Southwest did not release any details on the timing of ticket sales, when the flights will begin or where it will launch the first flights but Kelly said the airline will as soon as it receives its final "report card'' from the FAA, according to an airline spokesman.Kelly has previously said Southwest would start selling tickets within days of receiving FAA certification for long overwater flights, with the first flights within weeks of that.
Southwest formally announced plans to begin Hawaii service in October 2017. It has dribbled out details since. Last year, the airline said it planned to serve four islands in Hawaii: Oahu, which is home to Honolulu; Maui, Kauai and the Big Island of Hawaii, home to Kona.
The airline said it planned to fly to Hawaii from four California cities: San Diego, Sacramento, San Jose and Oakland.
The airline's last test flight was from Maui to Dallas on Feb. 19. Southwest has no plans to fly from its Dallas home base to Hawaii but had flown from Oakland to Maui a day earlier, a test flight that drew a lot of attention on Maui.