Arriving back at Honolulu International Airport late yesterday afternoon was, once again, a rather sobering experience.
We were on a United Airlines flight, so a caveat is in order. Honolulu Airport offers two different airport experiences. When we flew to New Zealand earlier this year, the flight left from a gate on the far ewa end of the airport. It was a different world from the airport we regularly see. Much more modern, many more shops, etc., etc. So the following comments apply to the Diamond Head end of the airport where the United gates are located.
Our flight landed at about gate 9, and we deplaned out onto the United concourse and walked out to the sidewalk, where we were greeted by HNL’s version of airport information.
It was the driver of the Wiki-Wiki bus, which shuttles passengers over to baggage claim and the inter island terminal. He was seated in the bus, but leaning out the window and shouting out directions, which were largely unintelligible. I couldn’t make out what he was saying. Was he yelling angrily at someone? Shouting out information? It really wasn’t clear. First contact with the visitor, a shouting man. The sound of the islands?
In contrast, when our shuttle bus dropped us off at the baggage claim level of the Denver airport, we had to take an escalator up to the ticketing lobby, so large that it was split into East and West sections. We were looking at a large map at the top of the escalator and were soon approached by an airport information person offering to help. He quickly sent us off in the right direction with a smile and a wave.
In Honolulu? Not so much.
We chose to skip the Wiki-Wiki and walk to baggage claim. When you get to the main part of the terminal building, you get to the escalators that take you down to the baggage claim area. There are two escalators. One was blocked off and out of order. I wish I could say this is unusual, but in our experience it’s quite common. It would be interesting to review the airport’s maintenance records to see how often this is the case and how long it takes for the escalators to be repaired when they go down.
There was a sign in front of the other escalator, but it worn out and damaged, with much of the lettering scratched off or faded away, and you really couldn’t make out what it said as you passed by.
Downstairs was another sign on plain paper or thin board, encased in plastic, that was also worn out and damaged, an apparently temporary sign simply left up for permanent display and not on any replacement cycle. I think it was agricultural item warning about what can’t be brought in.
Then, through the glass doors to the baggage claim area.
Like many arriving passengers, I went to the nearest restroom. This is on the end where most United passengers arrive. I’m not sure about the women’s restroom, but the men’s features a total of two urinals.
I can’t think of a major airport I’ve visited anytime in recent years that greets visitors with a tiny facility like this in a major, heavily used area.
Across the street, half of the main parking structure is closed while they do some kind of upgrade project. Big CIP projects seem to eventually get done at the airport.
But here in the terminal, at least on the Diamond Head end, there seems to be virtually no care for the small stuff that actually makes a difference to passengers in practice.
Most other modern airports provide sitting areas where mobile devices can be recharged, as well as free wifi for visitors. I keep reading that Honolulu is working on it, but in this global competition, that isn’t good enough.
These are problems that obviously have spanned state administrations and political parties. Why are we so bad at keeping our airport up to date?
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Really like the Ossipoff design of the airport with its open air layout but it has been so badly neglected for decades, especially the infrastructure (elevators, restrooms, escalators, signage), that it’s a dump. Very sad & frustrating to see.
Re: the CIP across the street from baggage claim. That would be the new rental car palace from which SO many of us will benefit when it’s completed – NOT! In the meantime, we peasants can just struggle to find parking while a significant portion of the overseas parking structure is blocked off due to that construction.
I hope a lot of people read this!
I was just in Incheon, Kuala Lumpur, Kuching, Sandakan, Kota Kinabalu, Brunei and Singapore airports and realized that even the tiniest — Sandakan in Borneo — is more friendly for visitors than ours. And at each I exclaimed: “Wow, why don’t we have an airport like this?”
Honolulu Intentional Airport is a third world dump compared to the major Pacific basin Airports. Period. End of sentence. Full stop.
The deplorable facilities are just one aspect. The dismal service levels another.
I am surprised that no senior group has come forward with a volunteer program to help visitors from deplaning all the way to the street level. Maybe demonstrate some aloha.
Maybe there is such a program but like all things at HNL it is defunct, ineffective, broken or ignored.
Starting point for change: get rid of the same companies that have been running the same businesses for 50 years in a business environment where most airports turn over vendors for higher rents every 3 to 5 years. Start investing the higher revenues in the physical plant.
Passengers from the Mainland that I recently deplaned with at HNL were ecstatic as they walked on the breezeway that separates the airplane arrival and departure terminal from the main terminal.
They were enjoying the refreshing tradewinds in the high 70s in contrast to the Chicago temperatures in the 40s when we left, and remarking about the views of the mountains.
Leaving the plane, I heard several announcements over the PA system explaining that we could either walk to the baggage area or ride the WikiWiki buses.
Overall, I thought that HNL compared very favorably with the Mainland airports (Denver, and Chicago) I visited. Perhaps it was the halo effect of finally being back home!
Ian, I agree with your major points. It’s well past time for the state to update us on the status of the statewide airports-modernization plan. I continue to be puzzled about the clear demarcation in the overseas terminal, and especially at United’s seeming acceptance of gate holding areas that clearly show their age.
Baggage claim, with its low ceilings and unconnected carousels, is in need of an overhaul. The ceilings could at least be cleaned and painted in a lighter color. Those of us who travel light may not have had to deal with retrieving bags in a while.
Next time you’re at the airport meeting someone, come a few minutes early and see what our visitors are greeted with, and be prepared to want to apologize. The idea of having to split your attention between two unconnected carousels after a longhaul flight and a change in time zones is probably not anyone’s idea of a great “arrival experience.” Ditto the level of cleanliness, the quantity of usable bathrooms, and the availability of a water fountain.
Having just passed through the airport this afternoon after a ten-hour-plus flight from the East Coast I can second everything that Ian relates. The airport exemplifies the aging infrastructure of Hawaii and the seemingly cultural inability to maintain anything. (The WikiWiki bus is the tip of this spear.) Compare our airport to the United Terminal at O’Hare. It is at least 28 years old and looks as immaculate and innovative as the first time that I saw it in 1988. Honolulu Airport is a dump by comparison, but Lopaka is right at least to this extent: people will put up with crappy infrastructure if that’s the only choice they have to be able to visit or live in a place of great natural beauty albeit one increasing riddled with signs of political and cultural decay. Lucky you live Hawaii just not as lucky as before.
IAN,
You forgot the best part–waiting for a taxi. Now talk about third world.
The rest of your comments are so right.
I’m guessing the women’s restroom featured even fewer urinals.
HNL is a embarrassing dump. I live on the big island and avoid any travel through HNL. I’ll do everything possible to hub thru SFO before going through HNL. KOA is a nice terminal to start a trip from, as long as you don’t mind wet socks when you are forced to remove your shoes by the TSA gestapo.
I was sorry to learn that anyone interested in leasing a retail space at HNL must sublease from Duty Free, who holds the master lease.
Not having had to meet anyone inside for quite some time, cannot comment. However, have taken people to departure and the signage is ridiculous. Great….airlines listed on the big overhead signs, but those at the curb where you actually let people off are so small, frequently blocked by a van or bus, and you can easily pass them by. Bigger signs, please!
Shirley – they used to have bigger signs – ones you could *read!* – but they took them out 8 or 9 years ago and replaced them with those teeny ones that may as well not be there.
AND the airport’s just simply dirty. The sidewalks haven’t been power-washed in our lifetime, I’m pretty sure.
It takes a lot, a lot, of money to re-do an existing airport. Meanwhile, there’s no reason it can’t be tidied up a bit. That takes ‘effort’ more than ‘money.’
We’re waiting…
At the Kahului airport on Maui, mainland flights arrive and depart from gates that are the farthest from the terminal. It’s a very long walk, especially with luggage and a bum knee, and the three moving sidewalks are never — repeat: NEVER — working. Furthermore, the big plate glass windows looking out onto the tarmac with a splendid view of Haleakala as backdrop are often so filthy that they’re the subject of conversation among visitors waiting to board their flights. It’s just plain embarrassing!
My last arrival at HNL was *infuriating*, and it was largely because of the Wiki-Wiki shuttle driver. I prefer to walk (especially coming off a 12 hour flight after 4 days of transit). Sometimes you can walk to immigration and baggage claim, but this person seemed to think I was asking for permission to bomb the airport and yelled at me that the only way to get where I needed to go was on the shuttle. No airport employee in all of Asia would dream of treating a traveler that way. I was seething. Kama aina, welcome home indeed.
I think the conversation about Honolulu International, and it’s perceived condition, needs to be broken out into two subsets – the visitor from the mainland and the resident returning home. For the visitor, I will concur with Lopaka43, in which the perceived deficiencies that we as residents see in our airport are oblivious to them. As with Lopaka43, I heard more visitors appreciating the open air that they are able to get at the facility.
As for residents, yeah, we all see the deficiencies of the place because, well, it is the first stop on a trip out and the first place we see when we come home. With many like me whom travel frequently to the Continent, we see what we’d like to see at our HNL that other cities have in their ports. I cite here Las Vegas as an example.
So there is the resident/visitor perception. As for your view of what it is like on the Diamond Head end – as you know the Ewa wing, where Hawaiian Airlines and certain international carriers fly out from, was given a freshening up a number of years back with the help of main tenant Hawaiian Airlines. The Diamond Head wing is still pretty much United Airlines territory with the occasional ANA departure. United has, to my knowledge, not done the Hawaiian Airlines freshening up and have left it in the durable hands of HNL airport administrators and the DOT…Now on that, I think the state could do more to work on it. A counter to this is the recent freshening up that has been done at the central concourse, where there is now a concession near the makai gates and very inexpensive massage chairs ($5/half hour) which has made the airport a bit more nice for me to fly out of.
Does HNL need a upgrade…yes. Is it happening..yes. Is it going to look like chaos ensuing on every level while it is happening…yup. But just keep in mind the way the ticket counters are at the second floor and realize that while the facility is in some cases approaching 50 years old, it does have the ability to be revamped and given a overhaul without having to tear everything down. I cite here what Los Angeles went through in the early 80’s when certain terminals were nothing more than inflated tents while they built the Tom Bradely Terminal on the West side of the concourse.