This airline finally replied to a passenger nine years after he tweeted them to suggest a new route

An airline has replied to a potential passenger nine years after he suggested it start flying to Hawaii.

It was back in May 2008 that David Raatz first tweeted Southwest Airlines to ask for the new route.

Now the airline has apologised to Hawaii-based Raatz for the delay, revealing it will be flying to the islands.

The airline wrote: “David, we know it’s been awhile… but we’re going to Hawaii, and we want you on one of our first flights!”

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The Twitter user had made an appeal to the airline requesting Southwest fly between the islands and to the mainland US, saying “we are hurting for good fares!”

The Dallas-based airline finally got back to him as it shared details of its intention to fly to Hawaii, following a company conference in California.

The airline has replied to several other potential passengers who had requested the airline shake up the market, but they are more recent tweets.

The airline’s chairman and chief executive officer Gary Kelly said: “We’re ready and excited to address a request we’ve heard for years.”

And in @Raatz’s case, it really has been years.

Southwest still needs to gain Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval for the routes but tickets will go on sale next year, with full service details announced at a later date.

The airline currently flies to 99 destinations in the US and nine additional countries. It operates more than 4,000 departures a day and is the US’s largest domestic air carrier based on Department of Transportation figures.

Its first flight was on June 18 1971.

And if you’re wondering how Raatz responded to the news, he took it in his stride.