Earlier this year, Southwest Airlines executives said they hoped to begin selling tickets for Hawaii flights by the end of 2018. Clearly, that's not going to happen, so the focus now shifts to 2019. UPDATE: Southwest's Hawaii plans delayed by government shutdown While the selling of Southwest flights has not started, incumbent airlines have already reacted with some of the deepest discounting we've ever seen to the islands. Over the last six months, the least expensive round trip fares between the mainland and Hawaii have been in the low $300s, and occasionally (and remarkably) even dipping below that threshold. Prior to Southwest's announcement, the cheapest fares typically ran in the $400-$500 range. Based on Southwest's earlier announcements, we thought Southwest would have announced dates, fares and Rapid Rewards redemption levels for its new service by now. It's been an agonizing wait for many Southwest fliers-- or just about anyone interested in flying to Hawaii this winter. While there's still nothing official, there have been new developments that point to a February or March 2019 launch of much anticipated Southwest flights to the Aloha State > It's all about ETOPS: Everything boils down to Southwest getting its fleet of overwater Boeing 737s certified for ETOPS (Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards). Since Hawaii is 2,500 miles from the U.S. mainland, a special type of aircraft and certifications are required. To get this certification, Southwest needs to demonstrate that in the event of an engine failure over an ocean, its 737s can safely fly on just one-engine for an extended amount of time to the nearest suitable airport. Don't miss a thing! Sign up for our bi-weekly travel news updates from TravelSkills! The process can take airlines 12-18 months to complete, and there are indications Southwest is close to finishing. (You may remember that Alaska's Virgin America ran into similar delays when it launched Hawaii flights in 2015.) > Key procedures approved: Southwest told its employees last Friday that its ETOPS-related procedures and manuals were approved by Federal Aviation Administration before Christmas. The certification process will advance to what will be the two final phases: so-called "tabletop exercises" where Southwest will demonstrate to the FAA (while on the ground) its plan to safely respond to simulated scenarios that the Hawaii flights could encounter. If the FAA is satisfied, actual flights across the Pacific with Administration personnel on-board — called proving or validation flights — will begin between the mainland and Hawaii. This will be the final phase of the certification. We're watching for these to happen! > A curious flight: A flight that caught our eye was December 18's Southwest flight 8750 that departed Oakland and made a nearly four-hour loop out over the Pacific on an ETOPS configured Boeing 737-800. We've received no official confirmation about the purpose of this flight, but airline industry observers speculate that it was to test procedures and equipment necessary for transoceanic flying like on-board high frequency radios and satellite communications. These tests are typically a necessary precursor to validation flights with the FAA onboard. FlightAware > CEO: Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly told Bloomberg earlier this month he expects flights to begin during the "peak winter season" which leads us to believe that an announcement about the flights is imminent-- meaning a timeline of January or February at the latest. He told Bloomberg once his airline gets all the necessary certification and approvals, marketing will begin "almost immediately." That's when we should expect to learn exact route pairings, any potential new product announcements, and most importantly — how much the airfare will cost, or how many Rapid Rewards points will be needed for the new flights. Don't miss a thing! Sign up for our bi-weekly travel news updates from TravelSkills! The airline has said there will be an unusually short time between when flights go on sale, and when flights will begin — it could be a matter of weeks. When announcing new routes, airlines typically do it months in advance to drum up publicity and ticket sales. That could mean a slew of last minute deep discounts for those who can drop everything and jump on one of Southwest's first Hawaii flights-- this could help fill up the flights and provide the airline with a huge PR win. Southwest announced in May it intends to offer flights from four California cities: Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento and San Diego In Hawaii, Southwest will serve: Honolulu on Oahu, Kahului on Maui, Lihue on Kauai, and Kona on the Big Island. There will also be inter island flights between those cities in Hawaii. Given three of the four mainland launch cities are in Northern California, we know loyal Bay Area Southwest fliers are eagerly waiting for news on this. Here's our refresher from October about what we do know about Southwest's Hawaii plans. And see this update about how the government shutdown has delayed Southwest's plans for Hawaii Will you fly Southwest to Hawaii, or take advantage of low fares offered on another carrier? What airline do you prefer to fly to the islands? Leave your thoughts in the comments. Read all recent TravelSkills posts here Get twice-per-week updates from TravelSkills via email! Sign up here Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis.<doc-sep>During the flight the airline will seek to demonstrate its long-range navigation and communication systems to inspectors from the Federal Aviation Administration. The airline must get a government approval for long over-water flights, known as "extended-range twin-engine operational performance standards" or ETOPS. Federal safety inspectors will fly on the Boeing 737-800 from Oakland to Honolulu around 11 a.m. PST, a key step for the low-cost airline's process of getting government approval to begin commercial flights to the islands. Southwest Airlines is making its maiden voyage to Hawaii on Tuesday — but there won't be any vacationers aboard. Southwest, which serves destinations in the U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean, first announced it planned to start offering service to Hawaii in October 2017. Southwest will need regulators to sign off on the airline's ability to operate the flights safely since their path will take them more than an hour from the closest airport. The airline has been racing to get certification to start offering the flights, which it expected to do last year. It said the partial government shutdown delayed its plans to start selling tickets because FAA inspectors were furloughed. Another partial shutdown is possible this month, since only a short-term deal was reached, and another impasse could delay the approval of the Hawaii flights once more. "It has impacted our certification process for Hawaii," CEO Gary Kelly told CNBC last month about the shutdown. The airline's decision to offer service to the Aloha State has rattled the stock of would-be competitor Hawaiian Airlines. In what's been dubbed the "Southwest Effect," fares are $45 lower in markets where the airline has nonstop service than in cities without those routes, a University of Virginia study found. Southwest plans to offer Hawaii flights from the West Coast as well as intra-island service. WATCH: From startup to the big leagues, how JetBlue plans to stay relevant<doc-sep>With a highly-anticipated announcement about its flights to Hawaii expected any day now, Southwest Airlines found itself shaking off a week of unexpected delays, cancellations, labor strife, investor anxiety, and word of an ongoing federal investigation into how it weighs its baggage. The airline could surely use a little aloha spirit right now... Here's a quick recap: > Southwest last week issued an operational emergency and ordered mechanics to work after the carrier saw an increase in the number of out of service jets. This week, airline Chief Operating Officer Mike Van de Ven lashed out at the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, which represents 2,400 Southwest mechanics, suggesting it was a work disruption related to ongoing labor talks between the airline and the association. AMFA said the airline was "scapegoating" its members and was pressuring mechanics to put planes back into service. The out of service jets have led to the cancellations of hundreds of flights nationwide. > We also found out the airline is the subject of a year-long Federal Aviation Administration investigation into how it calculates the weight of customers' bags that are loaded onto the belly of Southwest jets. FAA investigators found Southwest ramp agents were hand-counting bags and then calculating totals using federally-approved average weights. But the figures were not always accurate. The FAA found the totals were sometimes 1,000 pounds heavier than the number given to pilots. In extreme cases, these weight differences can affect flight controls. The carrier said it has rolled out new digital scanners to read baggage tags to calculate precise weights, similar to how other larger U.S. airlines do it. The investigation began in February 2018, but was reported this week by the Wall Street Journal. > Southwest said Wednesday it expects to take a $60 million hit because of last month's partial shutdown of the federal government. During an earnings call in January, Southwest originally put the shutdown's impact to be $10-$15 million. The carrier reported softer than expected government-related travel bookings after the federal government fully reopened. > Southwest stock was further dragged down this week after a Goldman Sachs analyst downgraded the carrier because of the delayed launch of flights to Hawaii. The analyst said she believes Southwest will need to offer rock bottom bargain fares to fill its planes, once fares are announced and go on sale — which is not something investors typically want to hear. (But it is sure music to the ears of travelers!) The carrier said customers should expect a very short timeline of when sales begin and when the first flights depart. The Dallas-based airline has not yet announced publicly whether it has obtained Extended Twin-Engine Operating Performance Standards, or ETOPS, certification from the FAA. But it is getting close: "We've completed ETOPS validation flights last Tuesday. We are now continuing our dialogue with the FAA to receive their feedback so that we may complete the final phase of the ETOPS application process to their satisfaction," a spokesman told SFGate on Friday. The airline tells SFGate it will not announce routes, sales or introductory fares until it receives the necessary federal approval. Don't miss a morsel of important travel news! Sign up for our free bi-weekly email updates! > Mother nature also dealt Southwest a bad hand at its busy Las Vegas operation yesterday. More than 250 Southwest flights in and out of McCarran International Airport were cancelled Thursday because of a rare snowstorm there. Las Vegas is one of the busiest airports for Southwest with 225 daily departures. > And then finally, on Friday morning, a computer glitch grounded Southwest flights nationwide for less than an hour. Since the problems started overnight, only a few Southwest flights on the U.S. West Coast were impacted by the outage. At Oakland International Airport, where Southwest has its largest operation in the San Francisco Bay Area, nine flights were cancelled by late morning, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. Nine Southwest flights were also cancelled at Mineta San Jose International Airport, and only one Southwest flight at San Francisco International Airport was nixed. Read all recent TravelSkills posts here Get twice-per-week updates from TravelSkills via email! Sign up here Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis.<doc-sep>Southwest Airlines has passed a key test in its efforts to gain FAA certification for its Hawaii flights and a second round of test flights begins Thursday. Southwest, whose efforts to start Hawaii flights were delayed by the government shutdown, passed so-called "table top'' exercises with the FAA in Dallas this week and has been approved to begin validation flights, Southwest spokesman Brian Parrish said. The next round of validation flights are different than last week's proving flights, which focused on long-range navigation and communication equipment and procedures on the flights. These flights will focus on the full range of procedures, Parrish said. ETOPS, which stands for extended range operations for two engine airplanes, is the FAA certification airlines need for long overwater flights. The flight is scheduled for Thursday afternoon from Oakland to Honolulu, departing at 11 a.m. local time. Southwest’s first validation flight was also from Oakland to Honolulu. The airline plans to operate one validation flight per day for multiple days, Parrish said. That means travelers waiting to book Southwest flights to Hawaii will have to wait into next week at a minimum. Southwest has repeatedly said that it will not be selling tickets to Hawaii until it has received FAA approval. That didn't stop rumors from circulating that Southwest was planning a big announcement about Hawaii on Valentine's Day. Southwest's only Valentine treat for passengers: free drinks.<doc-sep>
LATEST UPDATE (Wednesday. Feb. 6): Southwest Airlines’ first-ever Hawaii departure is scheduled to leave Honolulu International Airport for Dallas Love Field at 2:10 p.m. ET (9:10 a.m. local time) on Wednesday. Southwest Flight 8725 marks the return of the aircraft that the carrier flew from Oakland, California, to Honolulu a day earlier. Full story: Southwest's Hawaii flight tests continue: Honolulu-Dallas is next PREVIOUS POST: Southwest Airlines appears to be inching ever-closer to launching its long-anticipated service to Hawaii. The carrier plans to make its first flight to the state this week, the airline confirmed Monday. But there won’t be any passengers on board. Instead, the flight from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, will be a proving flight that’s part of Southwest’s effort to secure the "ETOPS" certification it needs from the Federal Aviation Administration to operate long overwater flights with its two-engine Boeing 737 jets. The airline's first Hawaii flight is scheduled for Tuesday, "barring any unforeseen changes," Southwest spokesman Brian Parrish said in a statement to USA TODAY's Today in the Sky blog. "Tomorrow's validation flight is not a regular, scheduled flight and only FAA Representatives along with Southwest ETOPS Program Team Representatives and ETOPS-trained Southwest Pilots will be onboard to demonstrate our long range navigation and communication procedures and equipment," Parrish added, noting that additional steps will be required to receive the certification. TODAY IN THE SKY:Southwest Airlines to ax Mexico City flights "Once we pass all phases of the ETOPS application process to the satisfaction of the FAA and receive our ETOPS authorization, we will announce further details of timing for selling and operating flights," he said. Southwest had already been in the process of securing that needed certification, but the effort received an unexpected delay during the federal government shutdown that furloughed federal workers, including FAA inspectors. Speaking during the airline’s earnings call in late January, Kelly said he expected that his airline would be able to begin Hawaii flights approximately six to eight weeks after the FAA approval process resumed. Before the shutdown, he said, Southwest was aiming for a Feb. 1 startup, though it never publicized that target date. ASK THE CAPTAIN:Aviation jargon and abbreviations explained He suggested then that if the shutdown ended within a week – which it did – the airline might be able to begin passenger flights by mid-March. One potential trouble spot, however, is that a deadline looms later this month for another possible shutdown. Whenever its Hawaii service does begin, Southwest's first flights will be from California to Hawaii. Inter-island flights would come after that, though the airline has not provided any sort of time frame. For now, Southwest continues its efforts to secure the certification that would allow its 737s to fly between the U.S. mainland and Hawaii. The certification – short for “Extended-range, Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards" – is standard for airlines wishing to deploy two-engine aircraft on long overwater routes where diversion airports are scarce. TODAY IN THE SKY:Southwest Airlines extends schedule, adds new seasonal routes As aircraft technology has advanced in recent decades, the certification has become common. From the mainland U.S., it’s frequently used for widebody jets making long-haul transoceanic routes to Europe and Asia. For Hawaii flights, many U.S. airlines already have ETOPS certification to fly narrowbody planes to and from the state. While many of its U.S. rivals already have the certification, Southwest’s effort to seek it is a recent development. Since its launch in 1971, the carrier flew only within the mainland United States for more than 40 years. But that changed in 2014, when Southwest began flying to several destinations in the Caribbean. It has since expanded its footprint to include Mexico and Costa Rica, but none of those flights require ETOPS certification. But, with the planned Hawaii service, Southwest has finally had to seek approval for ETOPS service. Contributing: Dawn Gilbertson TODAY IN THE SKY: Southwest's first day of international flying is in the books (2014) IN PHOTOS: Southwest unveils first new look since 2001