Southwest Airlines' ETOPS certification, necessary for the low-cost carrier's planned flights to Hawaii, has been put on hold due to the ongoing government shutdown in the United States, the Los Angeles Times has reported.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has confirmed that inspectors conducting the certification had been furloughed due to the funding gap and will only resume their work once the shutdown will have ended.
In December, CEO Gary Kelly said that the airline was "weeks, not months" away from getting the required ETOPS certification.
Southwest Airlines announced its plans to serve Hawaii from California in late 2017 but never named any specific launch dates, making it conditional upon the certification process. The LCC never needed an ETOPS certification before as it flies mostly overland domestically in the US and over relatively short stretches of water in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.
The airline initially wants to operate from Los Angeles International, San Diego International, Sacramento International, and San José, US in California to Honolulu, Kahului, Lihue, and Kona in Hawaii.
