It’s official: Southwest Airlines is making travel to Hawaii more affordable than ever. Last week, Southwest received FAA approval to offer service to Hawaii, and the budget airline isn't wasting any time offering cheap flights to the Aloha State. Southwest Airlines $49 to Hawaii Credit: Dennis Macdonald/Getty Images On Monday, Southwest announced it will begin flights to and from the Hawaiian islands starting on March 17. To sweeten the deal, the airline is offering $49 one-way flights — or $98 round-trips — between California and Hawaii. The $49 flights are selling quickly, so any travelers who manage to book a $100 round-trip flight should consider themselves very lucky. However, even those who do not get the cheapest tickets can be happy about Southwest's entrance into Hawaii service. Considering a great deal on a Hawaii flight is $300, the slightly more expensive $79 and $99 one-way fares also being offered are still amazing. Routes, SFGate.com reported, include Oakland to Honolulu, which will begin daily flights on March 17, along with Honolulu to Oakland, which will begin once-daily flights a day later. On March 24, the airline will increase flights to twice daily between Honolulu and Oakland. The airline will then begin flights from Oakland to Kahului daily on April 7, along with Kahului to Oakland on April 8. The Kahului to Oakland route will then be flown twice daily in each direction as of April 10, SFGate.com reported. Finally, a San Jose to Honolulu flight will begin May 5, once daily in each direction. A San Jose to Kahului flight is also set to start on May 26, once daily in each direction. San Diego and Sacramento routes have not been posted yet, so anyone looking for a bargain should keep an eye out — when the flights between those cities and Hawaii are offered, more $49 fares could be available. Beyond mainland to Hawaii travel, Southwest is also starting interisland service four times daily in each direction between Honolulu and Kahului April 28. Additionally, Southwest will offer interisland service four times daily in each direction between Honolulu and Kona on May 12. Travelers who want to fly between islands can also get Inter-island fares are as low as $29 each way.<doc-sep>(CNN) — Paradise is within your grasp, especially if you live in California. Southwest Airlines is launching its service to Hawaii with deep discounts. Fares as low as $49 one-way from Oakland and San Jose in California, to Honolulu and Kahului in Hawaii are available for purchase through March 5 as part of a two-day launch sale. The airline's service to Hawaii is set to start on March 17. Start dates for sale-fare travel range from March 19 through various dates in May, depending on the routes. Travel at the deeply discounted fares must be completed by June 19. Comprehensive details about the fare sale are listed in the airline's news release Southwest is also launching inter-island routes, with the first launching on April 28 between Honolulu and Kahului. Inter-island routes are available for purchase through March 5 for as low as $29 one-way. The lowest fares are valid only on certain days of the week, the airline said in its announcement. Service from San Diego and Sacramento will be announced in the coming weeks, according to Southwest. Details about flights to and from Lihue, on Kauai, will also be announced soon.<doc-sep>Southwest Airlines has started selling tickets to Hawaii, with the first flights taking off March 17. The initial flights will be between Oakland and Honolulu, with additional flights from Oakland and flights between San Jose and Honolulu, Kona and Maui added in April and May. Tickets are available on Southwest's website for the new routes. Introductory fares started at $49 one way for travel into mid-June, according to Southwest's website. The cheapest fares were available on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but as of 12:30 p.m. ET, the $49 tickets were sold out with limited other cheap fares left. Fares for peak summer travel range from $189-$214 each way. The airline didn't formally announced the start of ticket sales but quietly launched a Hawaii ticket portal. Southwest has a low-fare calendar to help find the cheapest fare. The starting dates for other Hawaii routes, according to Southwest's website are: Oakland-Maui: April 7 Oakland-Kona May 12 San Jose-Honolulu: May 5 San Jose-Kona: May 12 San Jose-Maui: May 26 More:12 things travelers need to know about Southwest flights to Hawaii Southwest last year announced that it planned to fly to Hawaii from four California cities: San Diego, Sacramento, San Jose and Oakland. The long-awaited details come after the airline received Federal Aviation Administration approval for long over-water flights last week. The last major hurdle — six test flights to and from Hawaii — was cleared on Feb. 19. Start the day smarter:Get USA TODAY's Daily Briefing in your inbox Southwest, the nation's largest domestic carrier, is a late entrant to Hawaii. A slew of competitors already fly nonstop flights between the mainland and Hawaii, with a heavy concentration in California, Southwest's initial target. Travelers hope Hawaii flight competition brings down prices Hawaiian Airlines offers daily nonstop flights from Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego, San Jose and Sacramento, California. Alaska Airlines offers nearly 30 daily flights from the West Coast to Hawaii, including flights from San Diego, Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento and San Jose. Travelers have been hoping Southwest's market entrance brings fares down, especially during popular vacation periods like spring break, summer and Christmas break. Fares between California and Hawaii often drop below $300 round trip during fare sales for low-season travel, but peak summer fares on nonstop flights to Hawaii are routinely $650-$800+ out of the airports Southwest is initially targeting. (Southwest is not initially offering flights to Hawaii from Los Angeles or San Francisco, where there is more competition.) Southwest has talked about flights to Hawaii — a top destination for travelers hoarding frequent-flier points on any airline — for years and 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, home to Honolulu; Maui, Kauai and the Big Island of Hawaii, home to Kona. Hawaii service was delayed because of government shutdown Southwest initially dangled the prospect of flights beginning in late 2018. Southwest executives said the airline was nearing the final phase of its efforts to get so-called ETOPS (extended range twin engine operational performance standards) certification from the FAA, with flights due to start Feb. 1, when the federal government shut down a few days before Christmas. ETOPs certification, a lengthy process involving new flight manuals and procedures, training and exercises and test flights with FAA officials, is required for twin-engine planes on routes where alternate airports aren't in close range should flight troubles arise. Southwest Chief Operating Officer Mike Van de Ven said on Jan. 24 that the government shutdown put the Hawaii flights approval process at a "total standstill.'' He said Southwest had a shot at beginning flights by the end of March if the shutdown ended within a week but otherwise it wouldn't be able to start flights until April at the earliest. The shutdown ended Jan. 25, a Friday. Southwest and the FAA resumed their ETOPS activities the next week, and Southwest's first Hawaii proving flight, from Oakland to Honolulu, was on Feb. 5. Exercises with the FAA took place in Dallas the week of Feb. 11, and daily test flights began later that week. Those flights included a diversion to Hilo, on the Big Island, on a Saturday flight from Oakland to Honolulu, according to flight tracker FlightAware. The airline's last test flight was a flight from Maui to Dallas on Tuesday, 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.<doc-sep>Southwest Airlines' cheapest tickets to Hawaii are rapidly disappearing just a few hours after they went on sale, and some flights to Hawaii are entirely sold out in March. The airline's eye-catching $49 fares from Oakland to Honolulu, which were available on Tuesdays and Wednesdays into June, are gone, according to Southwest's website. The airline is showing no availability in March at any price for that route and scant availability in April. There are also no more $49 flights from Oakland to Maui, which starts April 7. The lowest fare, available on a handful of dates in April and May: $79. Southwest's flights between San Jose and Hawaii, which debut in May, also went on sale Monday, and the $49 introductory fares on those routes are gone, too. As of 12:30 p.m. ET, there were a few dates in May with $99 one-way fares between San Jose and Maui and a few May dates with $119 fare each way from San Jose to Honolulu. The airline confirmed the cheapest seats are gone in a social media post at 3 p.m. ET Monday:"The lowest launch fares are sold out, but there are still many low fares available!" Southwest's $49 fares always sell out quickly during the carrier's twice-a-year mega fare sales, in June and October, though they are generally only available for short flights. The cheap tickets have disappeared even more quickly on the Hawaii flights given the $98 round trip bargain — fares between Oakland and Honolulu started at $328 round trip on competing airlines Sunday for an early April trip — as well as demand for the service and the limited number of flights. Southwest is starting with a single daily flight from Oakland to Honolulu, for example. Each flight can accommodate 175 passengers. More:12 things travelers need to know about Southwest flights to Hawaii Earlier:Tickets on sale from $49 for new Southwest Airlines Hawaii flights Competing for those seats: travelers buying tickets, cashing in frequent-flier miles (the lower the price, the fewer miles required) and those paying for one ticket and getting a companion ticket for free under Southwest's generous companion-pass program. The airline offered a free companion pass earlier this year to travelers who signed up for one of its frequent flier credit cards, and many travelers signed up specifically to use it on Hawaii flights. Travelers who didn't snag the $49 tickets early Monday are turning to social media to vent. One user wrote: "Went from really good deal to you can find it cheaper else where in 20 minutes!!" Southwest responded to one customer: "As there are many avenues to book, fares for peak travel times tend to sell out quickly. We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope to see you in the sky soon!"<doc-sep>
Southwest flights between Oakland, California, and Honolulu start on March 17, and already the promotional rates are selling out. Service from San Jose, California, to Honolulu and Kahului will start in May, Southwest said. Shares of Hawaiian Holdings , parent of Hawaiian Airlines, were down more than 10 percent in early afternoon trading. Hawaiian Airlines serves the islands from the West Coast and offers service on routes between islands similar to those Southwest has planned. Southwest shares were down 1.5 percent. Southwest Airlines burst into the Hawaiian market on Monday with one-way fares from California as low as $49, less than a quarter of the price for the same route on competitors. The low-cost airline last week announced it had finally received the green light from the Federal Aviation Administration to operate its Boeing 737 jets on the long overwater routes, where planes will be far from diversion airports. Southwest had revealed it would start flying to Hawaii in October 2017 and aimed to start selling tickets in 2018, but the partial government shutdown delayed those plans, as it awaited FAA approval. The new addition is a big part of Southwest's plan to increase flights 5 percent in 2019. Half of that will come from Hawaii, the airline said in January. The low-cost airline's debut in the Aloha State could drive down costs for vacations to Hawaii. In markets where the airline has nonstop service, average one-way fares are $45 lower than in cities without those routes, in what's been dubbed the "Southwest Effect," a University of Virginia study found. The lowest fares are going quickly. While one-way fares start at $49 for the Oakland-to-Honolulu service, a flight search showed some fares in March on that route have already gone up to $99. In comparison, a nonstop on Hawaiian was $218 one way for a connecting flight on the same route on the same day and close to $275 for a nonstop flight. Southwest plans to fly to the islands from four California cities: Oakland, San Diego, San Jose and Sacramento and fly to Honolulu, Kahului on Maui, Kona, and Lihue on Kauai. The airline will also offer flights between the islands, starting April 28 between Honolulu and Kahului on Maui, and starting May 12 between Honolulu and Kona, with fares starting at $29 each way.