Flights between the Hawaiian Islands cost around $150 one way at short notice, or $80 to $120 booked weeks ahead. Three airlines fly interisland: Hawaiian Airlines (now part of Alaska Air Group), Southwest, which cut its island schedule by about 30% since early 2025, and Mokulele, whose 9-seat Cessnas serve the small airports the jets skip. Most flights spend 30 to 50 minutes in the air.
Adding a second island eats about half a vacation day, and booking last minute stopped being cheap when the $39 fare sales ended. We fly interisland regularly, mostly on Hawaiian, and the fine print keeps shifting: Southwest ended free checked bags for visitors in May 2025. Your airports decide which airlines you can even book, so start there.
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Table of Contents
Tl;dr Investing 10 minutes of your time now to sort out your flights might save you money and hours of travel time while on Hawaii.
Island Hop like a Pro
Just because there are many islands to visit doesn’t mean you should! Sure, you get to see more of paradise, but there are logistical and time restraints to island hopping. Some folks find it more enjoyable to stay put on one island.
Airlines flying between the Hawaiian Islands in 2026
Three airlines run scheduled interisland service in 2026: Hawaiian Airlines, Southwest, and Mokulele. Hawaiian carries most of the traffic on Boeing 717 jets, Southwest flies 737s between the five biggest airports, and Mokulele covers the small airfields the jets skip with 9-seat Cessna Grand Caravans. Book directly on the airline websites: aggregators rarely beat the direct price on these short routes, and direct bookings are easier to change when a flight time shifts.
Details below last verified June 2026.
| Name | Airports | Nonstop routes to* | First checked bag |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Hawaiian Airlines (Details ↓) | Kona (KOA) and Hilo (ITO) | Honolulu and Kahului from both airports, Kona to Lihu'e | $30, or $25 with a free Atmos Rewards account |
| 2Southwest (Details ↓) | Kona (KOA) and Hilo (ITO) | Honolulu from both airports, Kahului from Kona | $30 for visitors, two bags free for Hawai'i residents |
| 3Mokulele (Details ↓) | Kona (KOA) and Waimea (MUE) | Maui and Moloka'i connections | 20 first, $30 second (70 lb limit per bag) |
| * Table for interisland flight to and from the Big Island. | |||
1: Hawaiian Airlines (now part of Alaska Air Group)
Hawaiian Airlines (website) became part of Alaska Air Group in September 2024, and the merger wrapped up in May 2026 when the two airlines began flying under a single operating certificate. In the cabin little has changed: the same Boeing 717s fly the neighbor island routes under the Hawaiian name, with more daily interisland departures than any other carrier. From the Big Island, Hawaiian flies nonstop to Honolulu and Kahului from both Kona and Hilo, plus Kona to Lihuʻe on Kauaʻi.
HawaiianMiles retired on October 1, 2025 and converted one to one into Atmos Rewards, the loyalty program Hawaiian now shares with Alaska. Old balances converted automatically. Interisland segments earn at least 500 points, and a free Atmos account trims the first checked bag from $30 to $25 on neighbor island flights.
2: Southwest
Southwest (website) arrived in 2019 with $39 interisland sales and dragged everyone’s fares down with it. That era ended quietly: the airline cut roughly 30% of its interisland capacity between early 2025 and 2026, stopped the deep fare sales, and in May 2025 ended free checked bags for visitors. It still flies 737s between five airports (Honolulu, Kahului, Lihuʻe, Kona, and Hilo), and on the routes it keeps, fares usually land within a few dollars of Hawaiian’s.
The bag math now depends on where you live. Hawaiʻi residents with a Hawaiʻi address on their Rapid Rewards account still check two bags free; visitors pay $30 for the first bag and $40 for the second. For a family of four with checked luggage, that difference can outweigh any fare gap.
3: Mokulele
Mokulele (website) is the small-plane specialist. Its 9-seat Cessna Grand Caravans cruise low enough that the flight doubles as a scenic tour, and they reach airports no jet serves: Hana and Kapalua on Maui, Lana’i City, and both Ho’olehua and Kalaupapa on Moloka’i. On the Big Island it flies from Kona and from the small Waimea-Kohala airport (MUE) outside Kamuela. Check-in happens at small commuter terminals, often without a security line. Bags are charged per bag, not by weight: $20 for the first checked bag and $30 for the second, with a 70-pound limit per bag and a $35 surcharge on anything from 51 to 70 pounds. The Caravans are small, so total aircraft weight still matters: pack light.
Parent company Surf Air Mobility is putting about $22 million into the Hawaiʻi operation through 2026, adding new Caravans and extra Molokaʻi roundtrips; the Honolulu to Molokaʻi run is now one of the most frequently flown routes of any U.S. airline.
Interisland routes for Mokulele airlines. Map retrieved from the Mokulele Website June 2026.
Airlines that no longer fly interisland
Several names from older guides are gone. Aloha Airlines stopped flying in 2008, go! followed in 2014, and Island Air shut down in November 2017. ʻOhana by Hawaiian, the turboprop service Hawaiian ran with Empire Airlines, was suspended in 2020 and never came back. Makani Kai Air merged into Mokulele in 2020, so its old routes now sell through the Mokulele website. If a site still tells you to compare five interisland airlines, it has not been updated in years.
How much do interisland flights cost in 2026?
Plan on roughly $150 one way on Hawaiian or Southwest if you book within a week or two of flying. Book a month or more ahead and fares drop to $80 to $120 on most routes. Mokulele prices its small-plane routes independently, so check it directly for Molokaʻi and Lanaʻi.
Fares climbed hard in 2025 and 2026. Southwest removed about 30% of its interisland seats, the Alaska merger took the pressure off Hawaiian to discount, and jet fuel prices spiked in spring 2026. Hawaii News Now reported walk-up fares around $150 each way in April 2026, with one Honolulu to Kahului round trip topping $600. The $39 fare war is over, so build the interisland leg into your budget early.
Book the interisland leg when you book your mainland flights, not after you land. Fares climb as the date approaches, and the cheap seats on routes with only a few daily nonstops sell first. Factor bags into the comparison too: a $90 fare plus two $30 bags is a $150 fare.
5 booking tips for interisland flights
Interisland flights are short, but a badly chosen one still burns half a vacation day. Five habits keep the travel day small.
1: Book the direct flight, even if it costs more
Honolulu (HNL) is the hub, and many fares between neighbor islands route through it. A connection over Honolulu turns a 40-minute hop into a three-hour travel block, usually to save $20 or $30. Book the nonstop whenever one exists. If two islands have only a few nonstops a week, change the order you visit them instead of accepting the layover.
2: Match the flight to your hotel times, not the lowest fare
The cheapest departures cluster at dawn and late evening, which is exactly when hotels cannot take you. Look up your check-out and check-in times, add the drive to and from the airport, and pick the flight that connects the two cleanly. Saving $20 on a 6 a.m. flight is a bad trade if you then wait five hours in a lobby for your room.
3: Fly into one Big Island airport and out of the other
The Big Island has two airports about 90 minutes apart: Kona (KOA) on the west side and Hilo (ITO) on the east. If your route covers both sides, and a visit that includes Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park should, fly into one and out of the other. You skip the long drive back across the island on departure day, when you can least afford it.
4: Pick your seat for the view
Interisland flights stay low compared with mainland routes, so a window seat gets you a real look at the islands and the channels between them. We pick our side of the plane by route:
- Oʻahu (HNL) to the Big Island (KOA/ITO): right side
- Oʻahu (HNL) to Maui (OGG): right side
- Big Island (KOA/ITO) to Oʻahu (HNL): left side
- Maui (OGG) to Oʻahu (HNL): left side
- To and from Kauaʻi: no preference
5: Do the checked bag math before picking an airline
Free bags ended in May 2025, when Southwest began charging visitors $30 for the first checked bag and $40 for the second. Hawaiian charges the same on neighbor island routes: $30 first, $40 second. Hawai’i residents still check two bags free on Southwest. Mokulele charges by the bag too, $20 first and $30 second, with a 70-pound limit and a $35 surcharge on bags over 50 pounds, but its 9-seat Caravans are weight-sensitive overall, so pack light.
Is there a ferry between the Hawaiian Islands?
No ferry serves the Big Island, and there is no statewide ferry system. The only scheduled passenger ferry in Hawaiʻi is the Expeditions ferry between Maui and Lanaʻi; the Superferry that briefly linked Oʻahu and Maui shut down in 2009. Flying is the only way to move between the Big Island and its neighbors, so if rising fares strain the budget, the better fix is visiting fewer islands and staying longer on each.
Flights to and from Hawaiʻi from the mainland
A Big Island trip starts with a flight of five hours or more, and that ticket is one of the largest line items in the budget. Our flights to Hawaiʻi guide covers when to book, which airports to compare, and what counts as a good fare.