Hawaiian Airlines Top 30 Busiest Domestic Routes in 2025, No.9 Will Surprise You

HONOLULU- Hawaiian Airlines (HA) busiest domestic routes are, without surprise, short-haul inter-island flights that connect Hawaii’s major population centers. Leading the list is the Honolulu–Kahului route with a staggering 1,277 monthly flights, offering over 163,000 seats and more than 16.5 million available seat miles (ASMs).

Following close behind are other inter-island flights between Honolulu and Lihue, Kona, and Hilo. Together, these four routes account for more than 4,000 flights and more than half a million seats each month.

These connections are essential lifelines for business, medical treatment, education, and family visits among the Hawaiian Islands. They also support the huge number of visitors who pass through Honolulu en route to other islands.

Moreover, additional inter-island flights like Kahului–Kona, Kahului–Lihue, and Kona–Lihue round out the busiest domestic pairings, albeit with much smaller aircraft and capacity. Although these flights have fewer seats and ASMs than the transpacific network, they rank high on the sole criterion of flight frequency.

Photo: Clément Alloing

Mainland-Hawaii Flights: High Capacity, Lower Frequency

While the inter-island network leads in flight frequency, Hawaiian Airlines’ transpacific U.S. mainland flights handle the most passengers per flight and produce the most ASMs.

The airline’s busiest mainland route is Honolulu–Seattle with 249 flights a month and over 63,000 available seats. Honolulu–Los Angeles is a close second, offering slightly fewer flights but even more capacity due to larger aircraft and higher daily utilization.

Another high-performing mainland service is the Las Vegas–Honolulu route, which sees 186 monthly flights and over 142 million ASMs, reflective of both demand and distance. Dubbed the “ninth island” due to the large number of Hawaiians living in Las Vegas, the route continues to be a cultural and leisure link between the islands and the mainland.

Other major West Coast gateways, such as San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix, and Portland, all appear in the rankings, typically seeing 62 flights per month, equivalent to one daily round-trip flight.

Photo: Clément Alloing

Shared Frequencies, Widespread Reach

A distinctive pattern emerges in Hawaiian’s domestic network: some 20 routes, especially among Hawaii and secondary West Coast cities, operate on a near-identical frequency. Long Beach, Ontario, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, and San Jose all receive one daily flight from Honolulu or Maui and ASMs that range from 28 million to 35 million, depending on the route.

Kahului, the primary airport on Maui, plays a central role. From Kahului to Las Vegas, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Portland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle, Hawaiian Airlines maintains a standardized service model, often with one round-trip flight per day.

These routes provide West Coast travelers with direct access to Maui’s resorts and beaches without transiting through Honolulu.

The consistency of frequency in these routes mirrors Hawaiian’s strategy in thinning the capacity across a range of mainland markets with a focus on schedule consistency and reliability.

Photo: Clément Alloing

Emerging Trends Outside Honolulu

While Honolulu remains the hub of operations, Hawaiian Airlines has begun to slowly expand its network from other cities such as Kahului, Kona, and Lihue airports.

For example, Long Beach–Kahului and Las Vegas–Kahului routes now enjoy the same frequency of flights as the majority of Honolulu-based flights.

Kona–Los Angeles and Lihue–Los Angeles are also among the top 33, reflecting the continued expansion of point-to-point service that bypasses Honolulu altogether. These flights enable Hawaiian to respond to the needs of those who want to fly nonstop to neighbor islands and avoid making intra-island connections.

Photo: Steve Knight | Flickr

Bottom Line

Hawaiian Airlines’ domestic network is a nicely balanced combination of long-haul and inter-island flying. The high-density schedules between Hawaiian islands offer high coverage to locals and tourists alike, and the transpacific network picks up traffic from the big population bases in the U.S.

With 20 out of the top 33 routes operated at 62 flights a month, the airline seems to have hit a sweet spot that maximizes aircraft utilization while offering daily departures on a consistent basis.

As Hawaiian prepares for a future with new aircraft and deeper partnerships with other carriers, the domestic backbone of its network remains rooted in its strength as Hawaii’s flagship airline.

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