• by Tanya Gazdik , Yesterday

Airport lounges can help maintain customer loyalty — just ask Delta, United, American Express and Capital One. 

Southwest Airlines, which has been teasing lounges for months, has gained approval to open its first lounge — at an airport where it's been flying since 2018, according to Dallas Business Journal. 

“According to Hawaii state records, the airline this month gained approval to lease space to build a lounge at Honolulu's Daniel K. Inouye International Airport,” according to The Points Guy. “This would be the first airport lounge for the Dallas-based carrier, and by far its deepest foray into the premium space.”

The space will likely span two floors and measure an expansive 12,000 square feet inside Terminal 2, where Southwest operates its HNL flights.

Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan teased the announcement last week on the company's earnings call.

"We're actively looking at continued changes to widen our product offering for our customers," Jordan told analysts Oct. 23. "Including things like premium seating, airport lounges and long-haul international destinations.”

According to View From the Wing, the lounge space is located near where the American Airlines/Japan Airlines, Korean, Qantas, IASS and Ko Olina/LeaLea lounges cluster today. 

“The 5-year lease is priced at $156.14 per square foot per year (the current lease signatory rate at the airport), so about $1.91 million per year with minimum buildout spend of $20 million,” the outlet reported.

The Dallas-based airline has undergone a series of changes to its business model in recent months, notes Men’s Journal, including free Wifi. Assigned seating was another big change, according to MediaPost Agency Daily. 

The lounge is “a major shift for the carrier that built its reputation on simplicity, open seating, and equal treatment for all passengers,’ according to Beat of Hawaii Travel News.