Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) is finally on its way to Hawaii.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday approved the low-cost carrier to fly to the islands from the West Coast.
The airline, which will service Hawaii from several cities in California, will announce when it will start selling tickets to the popular vacation destination in the coming days, it said in a statement.
The low-cost airline has been eagerly waiting for regulators to clear it to fly to the islands, which are a big part of its growth plan this year.
The approval comes as Southwest is locked in a bitter dispute with its mechanics' union after a surge in out-of-service planes due to mechanical issues that have grounded dozens of jets. The airline and its mechanics have been negotiating a contract for more than six years and the some 2,400 in-house mechanics seek bigger pay raises that what the company has proposed.
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 also intends to offer service between the islands.
Southwest plans to grow its flying 5% this year, and half of that will come from Hawaii, the airline said last month.
That growth comes at the expense of expanding to some international destinations.
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