There are no bridges between our islands. That catches a lot of first-time visitors off guard, because they plan a Hawaiʻi trip like a mainland road trip and assume they can drive from Waikīkī to a Maui beach after lunch. Our islands sit anywhere from about 30 to 100 miles apart across open ocean, and the only practical way across that water is to fly. We do it all the time, whether we are heading to a cousin’s graduation on the Big Island or taking the boys over to Lānaʻi for the day, and once you understand how the system works, island hopping turns into one of the easiest parts of planning a trip here.
This is the guide we wish every visitor had before they booked. We will walk through the three airlines that fly inter-island in 2026, what a seat actually costs right now, which airports serve which island, the one passenger ferry still running, and how to reach the smaller islands the big jets skip. We will also be straight with you about when island hopping is worth the hassle and when you are better off choosing one island and settling in.
Related: One Week on Oʻahu: How to Plan the Perfect 7-Day Trip · Where to Stay on Maui · Hawaiʻi Travel Mistakes We See Every Week
The Short Answer: You Fly
If you are short on time, here is the whole thing in one breath. To get from one Hawaiian island to another, you take a short inter-island flight, usually 20 to 50 minutes gate to gate, on Hawaiian Airlines, Southwest, or Mokulele. There is no car ferry linking the main islands. The old Superferry that once carried vehicles between Oʻahu and Maui shut down back in 2009, and nothing has replaced it since. The only passenger ferry still operating runs between Maui and Lānaʻi, and we will get to that below. Everything else moves through the air.
The flights themselves are quick and, on a clear day, some of the prettiest 30 minutes you will spend on the trip. You lift off from one island, level out over that deep channel blue, and the next island is already rising out of the water before the flight attendants finish the cabin check. Grab a window seat on the correct side and you might catch Molokaʻi’s sea cliffs, Haleakalā poking through the clouds, or the whitecaps rolling across the Kaʻiwi Channel. Our keiki still press their faces to the glass every single time.
The Three Airlines That Fly Inter-Island
For island hopping in Hawaiʻi, you are really choosing between three carriers. Two fly full-size jets between the major airports, and one flies small propeller planes into the little strips the jets cannot reach. Here is how we think about each one.
Hawaiian Airlines
Hawaiian is the backbone of inter-island travel and the one most of us grew up flying. It runs roughly 170 flights a day connecting Honolulu (HNL), Kahului on Maui (OGG), Kona (KOA) and Hilo (ITO) on the Big Island, and Līhuʻe on Kauaʻi (LIH), almost all on its Boeing 717 jets. If a route between two main islands exists, Hawaiian almost certainly flies it, and it usually flies it more often than anyone else, which matters when you want a 7 a.m. hop or a last flight home after dinner.
The big news is the merger. Hawaiian became part of Alaska Air Group in 2024, and the two airlines combined onto a single operating certificate in May 2026. For you as a passenger, the inter-island experience still looks and feels like Hawaiian: same jets, same crews, same fresh-off-the-plane pineapple smell in the cabin. The loyalty side did change. HawaiianMiles retired on October 1, 2025 and converted one-to-one into Atmos Rewards, the program Hawaiian now shares with Alaska, and Hawaiian joined the Oneworld alliance in the spring, so those miles now stretch across partners like American, Japan Airlines, and Qantas. On baggage, inter-island stays gentle: your first checked bag runs about $25 and the second about $35, with a carry-on and a personal item free. You can book directly at hawaiianairlines.com.
Southwest Airlines
Southwest jumped into the inter-island market back in 2019 and, for a few years, its low fares were the best thing to happen to island hopping in a long time. It still flies nonstop between the same five main airports, HNL, OGG, KOA, ITO, and LIH, and the planes are roomy 737s. The catch is that Southwest builds its schedule around Honolulu, so a route like Kahului to Kona can route you through HNL instead of flying you straight across. Sample hop times give you the idea of how quick these are: Kona to Kahului runs about 40 minutes, Honolulu to Līhuʻe about 45, and Honolulu to Hilo about 58.
Two things changed the Southwest math for 2026. The airline trimmed roughly 30 percent of its inter-island seats, so there is simply less Southwest to go around than there was a couple of years ago. And the famous “Bags Fly Free” policy ended in May 2025; a first checked bag now costs about $45 and a second about $55, though one carry-on and one personal item still fly free on every fare. For a quick island hop where you are only carrying a backpack, Southwest can still be the best value. The moment you are checking bags, run the numbers against Hawaiian, because Hawaiian’s lower inter-island bag fee often closes the gap. Book at southwest.com.
Mokulele Airlines
Mokulele is the small-plane specialist, and it is how you reach the islands and towns the jets fly right over. Its fleet is made up of nine-passenger Cessna Grand Caravans, and it runs more than 100 flights a day into nine airports across five islands. That includes the little runways nobody else serves: Molokaʻi (both Hoʻolehua and the tiny Kalaupapa strip), Lānaʻi, Kapalua on West Maui, and Hāna out on Maui’s east end, plus the main airports at Honolulu, Kahului, Kona, and Waimea-Kohala on the Big Island. Its parent company, Surf Air Mobility, is pouring around $22 million into the Hawaiʻi operation through 2026, adding aircraft and extra Molokaʻi round trips, and the Honolulu to Molokaʻi run has become one of the most frequently flown routes of any airline in the country.
Flying Mokulele is a different animal, and we mean that in the best way. You walk out on the tarmac, they may ask your weight so they can balance the plane, and there is no flight attendant and no drink cart. What you get instead is a low, slow, window-seat view of reefs, sea cliffs, and channel whitecaps that a jet at cruising altitude never gives you. Pack light, because the weight limits are real, and treat the flight itself as part of the sightseeing. Book at mokuleleairlines.com.
What It Costs in 2026, and When to Book
Let us be honest about fares, because they have climbed. Right now, if you book an inter-island flight within a week or two of flying, plan on roughly $150 one way on Hawaiian or Southwest. Book a month or more ahead and most routes drop into the $80 to $120 range. Those numbers are higher than they were a couple of summers ago, and there are real reasons: Southwest pulled seats out of the market, the Alaska merger took some of the pressure off Hawaiian to discount, and jet fuel prices spiked in the spring of 2026. None of that is in your control, but the timing of your booking is.
Our rule of thumb is to book inter-island legs about three to six weeks out, check Hawaiian and Southwest side by side because the winner flips week to week, and stay flexible on the time of day, since the early-morning and midday flights are usually the friendliest on price. Do the baggage math too. A lower Southwest fare stops looking like a deal the second you add a checked bag at $45 when Hawaiian would have charged $25 for the same bag. For Lānaʻi, Molokaʻi, Hāna, and Kapalua, you are usually on Mokulele, and those small-plane fares land in a similar range, sometimes a touch higher, for the convenience of skipping a long drive or a ferry.
The Airports, Island by Island
Knowing which airport belongs to which island saves you from booking the wrong one, and it happens more than you would think. On Oʻahu, everything flows through Daniel K. Inouye International (HNL) in Honolulu, which is also the main hub for connections. Maui’s workhorse is Kahului (OGG), while Kapalua (JHM) is a small strip on the west side and Hāna (HNM) is a tiny one out east, both served by Mokulele.
The Big Island is the one that trips people up, because it has two full airports on opposite coasts. Kona (KOA) sits on the dry, sunny west side near the resorts, and Hilo (ITO) sits on the lush, rainy east side near the volcano. They are a good hour and a half to two hours apart by car, so book into the one nearest where you are actually staying, or better yet, fly into one and out of the other so you never backtrack. Kauaʻi keeps it simple with a single airport at Līhuʻe (LIH). Molokaʻi flies out of Hoʻolehua (MKK), and Lānaʻi has its own small airport (LNY) up near Lānaʻi City. That is the whole map, and once it clicks, the rest is easy.
The One Ferry Still Running: Maui to Lānaʻi
If you would rather ride the water than fly, there is exactly one passenger ferry left in Hawaiʻi, and it is a good one. Expeditions runs the crossing between Maui and Lānaʻi, and it has been at it for more than 30 years. One important update for 2026: the boat no longer leaves from Lahaina. After the August 2023 Lahaina fire, Expeditions moved its operation to Māʻalaea Harbor, right next to the Maui Ocean Center and about 30 minutes from the West Maui resorts, and it has stayed there even though Lahaina Harbor has since reopened. Build that drive time into your plan.
The ferry makes three round trips a day between Māʻalaea and Mānele Bay on Lānaʻi, and the crossing takes about an hour and ten minutes. Fares run around $30 each way, which makes a day trip to Lānaʻi one of the better values in the islands. The classic plan is the 11 a.m. boat over and the 5:30 p.m. boat back, which gives you a full day. Two things to note: on the second Thursday of every month the 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. departures are cancelled for Coast Guard safety drills, so check the schedule if your dates land there, and in winter the crossing doubles as an unofficial whale watch, because the humpbacks love that channel. Once you land at Mānele, lovely Hulopoʻe Beach is a ten-minute walk from the harbor, but if you want to get up to Lānaʻi City or explore farther, arrange a shuttle or a tour in advance. You can check schedules and book at go-lanai.com.
Reaching the Smaller Islands: Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi
The two smallest visitor islands take a little more planning, and that is exactly why they stay so quiet and unhurried. Molokaʻi has no ferry at all anymore. The old Molokaʻi to Maui boat stopped running on October 27, 2016, and despite years of community talk and a county feasibility study still underway, nothing has replaced it. The only way to reach Molokaʻi today is to fly, almost always on Mokulele, a 25 to 35 minute hop from Honolulu or Kahului into Hoʻolehua for somewhere around $80 to $150 one way. Bring soft, light bags, because these are small planes with strict limits.
Lānaʻi gives you a choice, which is nice. You can take the Expeditions ferry from Maui as we described, or you can fly in on Mokulele or Hawaiian in about 25 minutes from Honolulu. If Lānaʻi is your main destination rather than a day trip, flying saves you the Maui drive and the harbor timing. Either way, plan ahead on both islands. Rental cars are limited and go fast, restaurants keep shorter hours, and a little advance booking is the difference between a smooth day and a stranded one. The reward is a version of Hawaiʻi that moves at the pace it did a generation ago. For the current lay of the land on getting around, the state’s official Go Hawaiʻi Molokaʻi transportation page is a solid reference.
Should You Island Hop at All?
Here is the part most guides skip, and it is the honest one. Just because you can hop islands does not mean you should cram three of them into a week. Every hop quietly eats the better part of a day once you count the drive to the airport, the early arrival, the flight, the baggage claim, and picking up a rental car on the other side. We have watched too many families spend their vacation in terminals instead of the water.
Our general math looks like this. If you have five days or fewer, pick one island and go deep; you will come home more rested and you will actually see the place. With seven to ten days, two islands feel comfortable, and the easiest pairings are Oʻahu with Maui or Oʻahu with Kauaʻi, since the flights are frequent and short. Only with two full weeks would we suggest three islands. The Big Island is its own case: it is so large and so varied that we think it earns a dedicated stretch rather than a two-night side trip. Whatever you choose, resist the urge to see everything on one visit. Hawaiʻi will still be here, and leaving something for next time is how you make sure there is a next time.
Tips We Give Every Visitor
A few habits make inter-island days run smoothly. Give yourself about 90 minutes at the airport even for a 30-minute flight, because the inter-island terminal at HNL gets genuinely busy at peak hours and you do not want to sprint. Remember that these are domestic flights, so the adult in your group needs a REAL ID or passport at security, but you do not need a passport to hop between islands and small keiki do not need ID at all. When you pack, keep in mind that you cannot move certain plants, soil, or animals between the islands; those rules exist to protect each island from invasive pests, so leave the cutting from Auntie’s yard where it is.
Travel as light as you reasonably can, especially on Mokulele where every pound counts, and book your rental car on each island the moment your flights are set, because neighbor-island car supply is tight and prices spike in the summer. If you are an early riser, it is worth asking about listing for an earlier flight, since inter-island schedules are frequent and standby space opens up. And on the Big Island, seriously consider the fly-into-Kona, fly-out-of-Hilo trick so you drive the island once instead of doubling back across it. Small moves, but together they turn a travel day into just another good day.
Island hopping is a big part of what makes a Hawaiʻi trip feel larger than any single place. Each island has its own rhythm, its own food, its own light, and stringing a couple of them together with a short flight or a ferry ride is a joy once you know the ropes. Plan the legs early, pack light, give each island the time it deserves, and travel with aloha while you are here. Mahalo for letting us help you map it out, and we hope your first channel crossing gives your family the same window-seat grin it still gives ours.
More from Wanderlustyle
Road to Hāna: The Complete Maui Drive Guide You’ll Actually Use · Haleakalā National Park Guide: Sunrise, Summit & Hikes · Nā Pali Coast Guide: 5 Ways to See Kauaʻi’s Wildest Coastline · Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park: The Complete Guide · Best Day Trips From Waikīkī: Beyond the Beach
Comments are closed.