Hawaii Inter-Island Flights: Hawaiian vs Southwest vs Mokulele

The first time I tried to fly from Honolulu to Kona, I assumed it would feel like any other regional hop on the mainland. Forty minutes in the air, walk off the plane, grab a rental car. Most of that turned out to be true. The part I didn't expect was how much the experience changed depending on which of the three main carriers I picked.

I've now flown every combination of these routes — HNL to OGG, OGG to LIH, KOA to HNL, even the tiny puddle jumpers between Maui and Molokai — and the differences are real. Here's what I've learned.

The three real options

For practical purposes, you're choosing between Hawaiian Airlines, Southwest, and Mokulele. Yes, there's some Alaska Airlines presence on certain routes, but for the bread-and-butter island hops, those three carry the majority.

• Hawaiian Airlines — the legacy operator, biggest network, full mainline jets (Boeing 717s) with first class.
• Southwest — the disruptor that arrived in 2019 and immediately undercut everyone on price.
• Mokulele Airlines — the small Cessna Caravan operator. Single-engine turboprops, nine seats, no security line.

Each has a personality and a sweet spot.

Hawaiian Airlines: still the default

Hawaiian is what I book when I want predictability. Their inter-island schedule is dense — sometimes a flight every 30 minutes between HNL and OGG midday — and their on-time performance is the best of the three in my experience. The 717s are old but well-maintained, and the cabin crew genuinely seems to care.

The downside is price. Hawaiian's published fare for a same-day Honolulu-Kahului hop can be triple Southwest's. But here's the trick: if you have HawaiianMiles, the award redemption rate is reasonable (often 7,500 miles one way), and a Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard knocks the cash price down with the companion fare and discount codes.

If you have status with American or Alaska, Hawaiian has reciprocity with both, which means free checked bags and earlier boarding without extra spend.

Southwest: cheap, but read the fine print

Southwest changed inter-island flying. When they launched, Hawaiian had to drop fares overnight, and walk-up tickets that used to be $200 became $59. That competition still benefits travelers today.

What I love:

• Two free checked bags. Huge if you're hauling beach gear, snorkel sets, a tripod.
• The Companion Pass works on inter-island flights — buy one ticket, your partner flies for taxes only.
• Fares are often genuinely cheap, especially if you book three weeks out.

What I don't love:

• Boarding chaos. The A/B/C cattle-call works on the mainland but feels especially weird when the flight is 38 minutes long.
• Schedule reliability has been shakier than Hawaiian for me. Two of my last six Southwest hops were delayed 90+ minutes.
• The 737 is overkill for the route, which means longer taxi times at HNL. You'll often spend more time on the ground than in the air.

I still book Southwest when the price gap is meaningful — say, $80 versus $200 — and I'm not on a tight connection.

Mokulele: a different category entirely

Mokulele isn't really competing with the other two. It's an experience. Nine-seat Cessna Grand Caravans flown VFR at 8,000 feet, often with the pilot doubling as the gate agent. They serve routes the big carriers don't bother with: Kahului to Hana, Kahului to Molokai, Kona to Kamuela.

The first time I flew Mokulele from Kahului to Molokai, the gate was a doorway in a small terminal building. The "boarding announcement" was someone walking out and saying "Molokai." The pilot weighed each passenger and our bags before assigning seats by weight distribution. Total flight time: 25 minutes, the entire West Maui coast and the cliffs of north Molokai unrolling under the right wing.

If you have any interest in aviation or photography, fly Mokulele at least once. The view from a Caravan at 4,000 feet over the Pailolo Channel is worth the price of admission.

Mokulele isn't cheap on a per-mile basis, but for routes the jets don't fly, it's the only game in town. And there's no security screening on most departures — you walk up 15 minutes before, get on the plane.

Real-world picking logic

Here's how I actually decide:

• Honolulu to anywhere, weekday, on a tight schedule: Hawaiian.
• Honolulu to anywhere, with a flexible day, traveling with bags: Southwest.
• Maui to Molokai, Maui to Lanai, Big Island town-to-town: Mokulele.
• Booked last-minute and the price gap is under $40: Hawaiian, every time.

Want a deeper look at structuring a multi-island trip around these flights? My 7-day multi-island itinerary breaks down the airport timing and which legs are worth flying versus skipping entirely.

Baggage, surfboards, and the weird stuff

If you're traveling with anything unusual, the rules diverge sharply.

• Surfboards: Hawaiian charges a flat fee per board. Southwest treats them as a checked bag (free up to two). Mokulele won't take them on the Caravans — period.
• Coolers with fish or food: All three accept them with reasonable rules; Hawaiian is the most flexible with frozen seafood out of Kona.
• Pets: Hawaiian has the only practical inter-island pet program. Inter-island pet travel within Hawaii has fewer quarantine hoops than mainland-to-Hawaii, but you still need paperwork.
• Camera gear: Carry it on. Don't check it. The 717 overhead bins are smaller than a mainline 737, so a hard Pelican over 22" can be an issue — soft bag works better.

Airport navigation

HNL inter-island gates are a hike from the main terminal — budget extra time if you're connecting from a mainland flight. OGG is friendlier, with inter-island gates close to baggage claim. KOA is open-air and small enough that you basically walk off the plane onto the tarmac. LIH is similarly small, but security lines can stack up at peak hours, and there's exactly one TSA Pre-Check lane.

If you're connecting from a long-haul international flight at HNL, give yourself at least 2 hours. The walk to the inter-island gates plus baggage recheck has burned me twice.

What I'd do differently

I used to optimize purely for price and ended up adding hours to my day for $40 in savings. These days I treat inter-island flying like Uber: the difference between $90 and $140 is rarely worth a 2-hour delay or a missed sunset shoot at the next stop.

If you only fly inter-island once a year, just book Hawaiian and don't think about it. If you fly three or more times a year, get the Hawaiian World Elite Mastercard for the companion fare, and use Southwest as your discount alternative when schedules align.

And at least once, fly Mokulele. The view alone is the article I should be writing instead of this one. For more general logistics on planning the trip end-to-end, I cover it in my Hawaii planning guide, and if you want to keep costs down across the whole trip, Hawaii on a budget has the rest of my notes.