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Best Seating for Inter-island Sightseeing

© Lottie Tagupa

Taking and inter-island flight is more like boarding a suburban train than an airplane ride. Schedules are frequent, boarding is simple and flight times are so short that there is hardly enough time to throw down a glass of tropical juice! It is possible to travel to another island or two for the day and return to Honolulu and your hotel for the night.

Inter-island airlines offers daily service in between the islands beginning at about 5:00 a.m. and continues throughout the day until about 9:00 p.m. Flights depart for most points on the average of every 25-35 minutes all day long. Service into the commuter airports such as Kapalua (West Maui), Hana, Lanai and Molokai are much less frequent and sometimes weather permitting and limited to daylight operational hours only. No meals are served on inter-island flights although there are upgraded amenities such as priority pre-boarding, complimentary cocktails for First Class passengers.

SEATING RECOMMENDATIONS

All inter-island seating is unassigned. Boarding and seating is done "movie theater style" with passengers queuing up as soon as they arrive to get the best seating selection on these flights.

Here are some seating recommendations for those who are interested in getting the most "sightseeing value" out of your short inter-island flights. These recommendations are based on typical tradewind weather conditions, flight patterns vary somewhat as the winds change, and are based on facing the front of the aircraft while seated as the flight crew does, NOT the direction you're facing when boarding the aircraft through the forward door. Note that Honolulu, Maui (Kahului), Kauai (Lihue) and Hilo airports all use jetways as a means to board and deplane, therefore the best seating to any of these airports is as far forward as possible. For the rest of the airports, best seating is nearest the boarding door with the exception of Kona where boarding and deplaning is offered through both forward and aft doors via stairs.

Best "sightseeing" seating choices for the following flights:

Honolulu to Maui (Kahului) - window seat, left side
Maui (Kahului) to Honolulu - window seat, right side
Honolulu to Kauai (Lihue) - window seat, right side
Kauai (Lihue) to Honolulu - window seat, left side
Honolulu to Kona - window seat, left side
Kona to Honolulu - window seat, right side
Honolulu to Hilo - window seat, right side
Hilo to Honolulu -window seat, left side
Hilo to Maui - window seat, left side
Maui to Hilo - window seat, right side
Honolulu to Molokai - window seat, left side