Southwest Airlines new routes will add nonstop service between Hollywood Burbank Airport and Honolulu International Airport on August 8, 2026. The flight becomes Southwest’s longest-ever nonstop operation from BUR, spanning 2,225 nautical miles each way.
The airline planned the first departure for August 4, 2026, before moving it to August 8. Southwest will use a 175-seat Boeing 737 MAX 8 on the route, with flights blocked up to five hours and 40 minutes.
Hollywood Burbank Airport to HNL
Southwest will start with Saturday service through October 2026, then expects to increase the route to two to six weekly flights from November through the winter. For travelers booking from BUR, that means the nonstop option begins on a limited schedule before it expands later in the season.
The route fills a gap that lasted from 2006 to 2025, after Aloha Airlines operated between Hollywood Burbank Airport and Honolulu International Airport from 2002 to 2005. The U.S. Department of Transportation said fewer than 5,000 round-trip passengers flew the city pair in the 12 months to April 2026.
Alaska Airlines at HNL
Alaska Airlines entered the market on May 13, 2026 and operated daily on the route through August 18, 2026 with a 161-seat Boeing 737 MAX 8. Alaska Airlines planned to return next May with daily service using a 173-seat 737-900ER.
Southwest’s BUR traffic fell by 7% compared with the 12 months to April 2025, even as the airline carried 3.4 million round-trip passengers at Hollywood Burbank Airport between May 2025 and April 2026 and accounted for 56% of scheduled activity there. Some of that decline followed the end of service from BUR to Eugene in January 2025, San Antonio in March 2025, Kansas City in September 2025, New Orleans in October 2025 and Portland International Airport in January 2026, before Santa Rosa was added in April 2026.
The immediate watchpoint is the August 8 start and the shift from the original August 4 plan. Travelers who want the first BUR-HNL flights will need the later date, while the broader question is how Southwest and Alaska Airlines divide the market once the winter schedule is in place.
August 8, 2026
Southwest’s timing gives it a late-summer start on a route that had almost no nonstop competition for years, and the move into BUR-HNL adds a long-haul option at an airport where the carrier remains the dominant scheduled operator. The first flights arrive after the date change, not before it.
