I had to make a very early morning run to the airport so that Meda could catch her 6:45 a.m. flight to Los Angeles, where she’s going to be speaking at UCLA’s Department of Social Welfare in the School of Public Affairs.
Last night, I tried to find out when the agricultural inspection stations open up, since you can’t check any baggage until it gets inspected.
That information may be on the airport’s official state web site, but I couldn’t find it. I finally emailed a friend who works as an ag inspector, who advised that most of the inspection lines open at 5 a.m. That’s less than two hours before flight time. Not a lot of wiggle room in this age of high security.
In the process, though, I found several other web sites with travelers’ comments about Honolulu Airport.
Here are a few from SkyTrax, billed as “the world’s largest airline review site.”
Inter-island terminal (also used by Hawaiian Airlines flights to the U.S. mainland). The terminal looks like a 1980s time warp. Dark corridors, dirty carpeting, cluttered floor space between jetway and hallway, dirty restrooms, limited concessions and the worst food of any airport in the USA.
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This airport desperately needs a major overhaul. It amazes me how such a busy airport can be left to deteriorate and not receive any funds to remodel into a modern airport in the pacific. The airport is gloomy and screaming out for a make over.
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Whilst this may not be the most modern airport, I like the design. It is open (welcome in those islands) & airy. The bars/diners may not be the best nor cheapest but it is O’ahu; it has to be expected.
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First time back in Hawaii after 15 years. Nothing has changed in all that time – still a dark and dingy airport with little natural lighting. I am sure that prisoners see more light! Immigration on arrival took 50 minutes. On departure after clearing security there are limited facilities. If the state government of Hawaii had any money they should bulldoze this airport and build a new one.
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I was first at Honolulu Airport in 1981 and thought it was an airport out of the 1960’s. Nothing has changed much. I was there in December 2008 (in transit) and again in January 2009 on way back to Sydney. The decor has not changed, the food choices are very limited and so are the shops.
And from Yelp.com:
It’s got lots of good shops and restaurants although the prices are ridiculous. $9 for Burger King?? I mean come on!
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The fact is this airport needs a lot of work!! It is very dumpy and run down. Not surprisingly, outside of the tourist areas… The island looks the same…very dumpy and run down.
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An open-air concrete structure that–much like the rest of Honolulu–hails very strongly from the 70s school of architecture.
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Love arriving here. But this Airport needs a makeover. LOL I believe they can definitely make this airport way nicer and more tropical. This place just looks like it’s worn down.
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We only have one airport here on Oahu. It’s not like I can go to another one. This one needs a revamp, bad. I’ve been to many different airports and people always stop me and ask me if everything is alright or if I need help. I’ve never gotten that here. It actually seems like there isn’t enough workers or something.
And I’m NEVER using one of their bathrooms ever again. I’m afraid I might catch something. I’ll just hold it until I get on the plane and risk motion sickness.
Oh, well, You get the picture, and it’s not a pretty one.
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Kokua Line in the SA a few months ago made mention that over half of the escalators have not been working for over a year. The State said they were waiting on parts…..the equipment is so old they must have to be hand made as many of them still don’t work.
The same concession companies have held the contracts for food and merchandise at HNL for over 40 years.
Notionally there is a bid process to select the operators for these lucrative opportunities but the bids are set up so that only the incumbent businesses, giant international firms, have a fair crack at winning the bid. In a place of such magical and unique characteristics,our airports consumer offerings are overpriced, bland, non-Hawaiian and dull.
From infrastructure and design perspectives, our main airport in Hawaii is a shameful thing when compared to modern facilities in Asia, the Mainland and elsewhere. But it’s not for lack of cash flow. Landing fees, concession fees, car rental fees and other incomes are high enough but there is no vision in the application of the funds. There frankly have been no leaders at the helm of HNL since maybe Rex Johnson and Owen Miyamoto.
The airport should be a treasure to our visitor industry but, instead, it is a major liability and it will be a huge embarrassment during the APEC conference.
I wouldn’t worry about ‘only’ an hour and 45 minutes to get through ag inspection and security.
In my experience, at that time of day, the lines are pretty short, and checking in at home can eliminate one line.
I don’t get all the airport criticisms either. Perhaps I’m biased because arriving at HNL means coming home, but I’ve been to a lot of other airports, and HNL doesn’t stand out in my memory as being much worse than any other large, international airport.
I like that there are a lot of open-air spaces. They tell travelers they’re in Hawai’i, where we don’t have freezing weather that requires isolation from nature.
I like the layout of the main terminal, which is an Ossipoff design. It’s always nice to come home, especially in winter, and walk along the open-air corridors, feeling the warm air. The main trouble, IMHO, is maintenance & repair — the eternal downfalls of all state-owned property. Given the various sources of income, it isn’t clear why such a poor job has been done in keeping up HNL’s appearance.
The concessions are another matter. Sure would be nice to see more choices in all areas instead of the same old high-priced garbage.
I’m not able to make a comparison between HNL and other world airports. Most I’ve been in are more modern, some spectacular–but HNL does have its own appeal, and I love getting off the plane and taking my first gasp of warm, soft air. So maybe I just don’t notice. And I would never eat the food. Hint– there is a cafeteria where airport workers eat downstairs. It’s no great shakes, but the prices aren’t robbery at least.
The maintenance (bathroom, cleanliness, painting) is something else. We seem to have a culture in government that just lets things rot. My own favorite example has always been the paint on roadways. It just disappears. Whole crosswalks are allowed to wear away. Use Google Earth and look down at the well-maintained roads in other cities.
I could go on but that’s enough. We just don’t care to fix things. The airport is but one example.
For APEC 2011, my guess is that there could be a few new coats of paint on the airport before then. At least I hope so.
Maybe they’ll clean the restrooms. Do you think?
We seem to have a political culture that won’t pay to maintain what it has built. If you won’t fund it, the government workers or the contract hires won’t be there to clean it.
I have been very frustrated by the disconnect between the state agricultural inspection and the airline check-in guidelines. I spoke to a United representative about it once, and she said that they have no control over the ag inspection process — even though they recommend getting to the airport 2 hours early, they can’t make ag open any earlier. (I waited in line once for ag to open when I got the airport at 5am for a 6:30am flight. Frustrating!).
I also like the design of HNL. I really enjoy the garden areas in the middle where you can escape a bit from the main airport. But the bathrooms are aweful. Small and cramped, dirty, dark, and just old. They are embarrassing. And the underpass from baggage claim to the parking garage is horrid — falling rotting ceiling tiles, a people mover that’s been non working for ages, and puddles on the floor. Egads — welcome to Oahu folks!
Regarding the price of concessions — honestly it’s no worse than other airports (Chicago and Dulles come to mind) where the mark-ups are ridiculous.
Design – fine. Maintenance – horrible.
Next time you come in from somewhere, go outside baggage claim and look at the benches and sidewalks. I don’t think they’ve been power-washed since they were created. It’s sad.
Hawaii doesn’t do maintenance.
Hawaii does do maintenance. Visit the campuses of some of the private schools here or the grounds of resorts like Ko Olina where the local workers clearly have high standards to meet and adequate staffing to meet those standards.
Should we privatize the airport?
I do travel a lot, in the past 12 months I’ve passed through Narita, Bangkok, Schipol, Sao Paulo, in the past 24 throw in Singapore, Bali, Barcelona, Paris, and Munich.
HNL is okay on design, the main terminal core is actually pretty good. Landscape of the areas between the “wings” is very good also. But, interiorscaping is bad, and that is a huge difference with every other International airport. This State produces a lot of foliage and flowers, but you would never know it at the airport, which is the first impression we give as a community.
The cattlecar buses to get from Intl. arrivals to Immigration feel like we’re heading to the Gulag, or worse. DOT really fails with the Airports.
Further, Hilo gives the same poor impression on an Interisland basis. Maui is marginally better.
Hawaii always seems to feel it just has to do the minimum to get by with tourism. I’ve seen people almost pass out from heat stroke waiting in line to go through security (how nice if there had been little plastic bottles of cold water).
When Castro dies and Cuba opens (God help the Cubans) and is the next great place, we will be in trouble unless we make the effort to make people really want to return. Unless we plan to get off the whole tourist/military economy thing. Sometime. . .
Can someone assure me the elevated Train terminals will do suffer the same neglect? Broken escalators, poorly maintained interiors?
Bathroom maintenance should be easy. I hear they plan on having one toilet stall per stop. Can that be correct?
I first became aware of this pattern at UH Manoa. Millions would be spent on new construction. They were paid from the CIP budget. New buildings provided jobs for architectural firms, engineers, contractors, the building trades, etc. (Those all all good things, in my book.)
But maintenance funds came out of the tight General fund, where they had to compete against so many other programs and agencies. So there were funds to build new structures. And funds to renovate old ones. But almost no money to maintain a structure once it has been built. Their are water-damaged ceiling tiles sagging above your head in almost every campus building. Some of the water may be from leaks, but most is probably from condensation from air conditioning or cold pipes. Whatever the source, the problem is clearly STRUCTURAL. In more ways than one.
Ian I have this image seared into my mind of a photo you took at HNL of a lone phones sitting at a booth were a human once stood back when we cared. This lone old style telephone with a crooked cheap sign above it which read; Tourist Information. hahahaha! priceless.
I looked at reviews for other mainland airports and they don’t look too good either, but doing some revamping here won’t hurt! =)