Honolulu (airport)

Honolulu International Airport was opened in March 1927 and was named John Rogers Airport in honor of a naval officer from World War I. ^[2] Construction funding was provided by state legislatures and the Chamber of Commerce , and the airport became the first full airport in the Hawaiian Islands. From 1939 to 1943, dredging was carried out in the bay adjacent to the airport to create the ability to receive seaplanes, and the soil formed during these works was used to further expand the airport's aircraft parking.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, all civilian airfields and airports in Hawaii were taken under control by US military units, and John Rogers Airport was no exception here, having deployed the Honolulu Air Force Base. The Navy has built a control tower and terminal building and allowed the implementation of part of commercial flights in the daytime. The airport resumed its normal operation in 1946, at that time it was one of the largest US airports in terms of occupied space with four new runways and two water runways to receive seaplanes. ^[2]

In 1947, John Rogers Airport was renamed Honolulu Airport , the word "International" was added to the name in 1951. ^[2] Due to its proximity to the central Pacific Ocean, the airport was used as a transit hub for trans-Pacific flights to and from North America . By 1950, Honolulu Airport came in third on the list of the busiest US airports in terms of takeoffs and landings, and its 4000-meter runway was recognized as the longest in the world in 1953. ^[2] In 1959, Qantas launched its first scheduled jet flight, using Honolulu International Airport as an interim stop between Australia and California .

The original building of the passenger terminal was replaced with a more modern building on August 22, 1962 and put into commercial operation on October 14 of the same year. ^[2] The building expanded and was rebuilt several times in 1970, 1972 and 1980. ^[3]

With the advent of long-haul airliners, most trans-Pacific flights began to operate without landing in Honolulu, thereby significantly reducing passenger traffic through the airport, to a large extent to destinations in Australia, the South Pacific and Southeast Asia . At the same time, Honolulu Airport continued to increase the volume of traffic on domestic routes, new non-stop flights were added to Phoenix , Newark ( Newark Liberty ), Denver and Atlanta .

On March 24, 2006, the Governor of Hawaii, Linda Lingle, unveiled a 12-year development plan for Honolulu International Airport providing for a number of short-term five-year projects aimed at improving the quality of passenger service, improving the safety and efficiency of the airport complex, reconstructing the passenger terminal and some taxiways tracks. The initial cost of the entire project is 2.3 billion US dollars. ^[four]

Honolulu International Airport is part of a centralized government structure that manages and regulates all airports in Hawaii's seaports. Officially, the chief executive of the airport is the Governor of Hawaii, who appoints the director of the State Department of Transportation and who, in turn, heads the administration of the Hawaiian airport.

The administration controls six governing bodies: the Operations Management of the Airports, the Planning Office, the Engineering Department, the Information Technology Department, the Human Resources Department and the Information Program Office. Together, these six bodies control airport facilities in four Hawaii counties: Hawaii (island) , Kauai , Maui, and Honolulu County .

The airport has four main runways. The main runway 8R / 26L, also known as Reef Runway , is the first runway in the world to be fully built at sea. Commissioned in 1977, the strip became the operating platform for the space shuttles of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Hikam Air Force Base. ^[five]

In addition to its four runways , Honolulu International Airport operates two 8W / 26W and 4W / 22W runways for receiving seaplanes .

The entire terminal complex of the airport includes a round-the-clock medical support service, restaurants, shopping centers and a business center with private conference rooms. Passengers have the opportunity to use the services of round-the-clock car parking.

In 2006, 323,726 take-offs and landings were performed at Honolulu International Airport with an average of 886 operations per day. Of these, 55% accounted for regular commercial flights, 26% for general aviation, 15% for air taxi services and 5% for the naval forces. A total of 206 aircraft are based at the airport, of which 48% are single-engine, 27% are multi-engine, 16% are military aircraft, 6% are helicopters.

Honolulu International Airport operates three terminal buildings. Passengers are transported between the terminals by Chance RT-52 , whose buses are called the “Wiki Wiki” (exact translation from the Hawaiian word “fast”).

The airport is the base for Hawaiian Airlines , whose share in the total passenger traffic of the airport is 45%. The second and third place in passenger turnover of the airport are United Airlines and Japan Airlines with shares of 7.7% and 7.4% respectively. The flights to the continental United States are dominated by routes to Los Angeles and San Francisco , which (together with flights to Vancouver and Seattle ) account for more than half of all flights between Honolulu and the mainland ^[6] .

On international routes, the dominant place belongs to routes to Japan . Two-thirds of the total international traffic falls on flights operated by Air Japan , China Airlines , Japan Airlines and United Airlines to Nagoya , Osaka (Kansai) and Tokyo (Narita) airports. More than 60 flights a week to Narita International Airport alone, and the frequency of flights currently continues to increase ^[6] .

Other major international destinations include flights to Sydney airports (12 flights per week with Hawaiian Airlines , Jetstar and Qantas ) and Vancouver (16 flights per week with Air Canada and Westjet ). Westjet is the only low-cost carrier currently operating at Honolulu International Airport ^[6] .

Small Flights Terminal (Gate 71–80)

The terminal serves small airlines operating flights between Hawaii's small and large commercial airports. Regional airline go! uses gates with numbers 71–74 ^[7] , Island Air - gates with numbers 75–77, Mokulele Airlines and go! Mokulele Gate 79 and Pacific Wings Gate 80. Gate 78 is not currently in use.

Intraisland Line Terminal (Gate 49–64)

The terminal serves mainly flights between the islands of Hawaii and some routes to the mainland of the United States . Hawaiian Airlines uses gates with numbers 52–61 ^[8] . Since November 19, 2008, Mokulele Airlines has opened regular domestic flights with Embraer 170 airplanes, using gates with numbers 49-52.

Main terminal (gates 6–34)

The terminal serves domestic and international destinations; All boarding gates are common to all airlines. However, to serve a particular airline, gates are distributed, as a rule, as follows ^{[10] [11]} :

• Alaska Airlines (gates 20-24)
• American Airlines (gates 16-20)
• Continental Airlines (domestic and international) (gates 12-16, 23-25)
• Delta Air Lines (Gates 20-23)
• Hawaiian Airlines (domestic and international) (gates 20–34)
• Japan Airlines operated by JALways (international to Japan) (24–34 gates)
• Northwest Airlines (Domestic and International) (Gate 10-17)
• United Airlines (domestic and international) (gates 6-11)

There were three major incidents at Honolulu International Airport that resulted in fatalities, and another incident related to a terrorist attack, which some observers consider a kind of prelude to the events of September 11, 2001 .

• August 11, 1982, flight 830 Tokyo - Honolulu airline Pan American . A bomb explosion on board an aircraft in the approach phase, one teenager was killed in an explosion, 15 people were injured of varying severity. The plane did not fall apart in the air, and the crew managed to make an emergency landing at Honolulu Airport .
• April 28, 1988, flight 243 Hilo - Honolulu , Boeing 737-297 (registration number 73711) of Aloha Airlines . In flight, the top of the fuselage separated from the aircraft, which led to explosive decompression and serious structural damage. One stewardess was thrown by a stream of air into the hole formed. The crew managed to land the plane, killing 1 person out of 95 on board. The cause of the accident was undetected loosening of the mount and fatigue cracks in the metal. ^[12]
• February 24, 1989, flight 811 San Francisco - Los Angeles - Honolulu - Auckland - Sydney , Boeing 747-122 (registration number 4713U) airline United Air Lines . After departing from Honolulu, the plane lost a poorly closed cargo compartment door. Explosive decompression and loss of traction of the third and fourth engines occurred, 9 passengers were thrown out. The crew managed to land a plane at Honolulu Airport. The cause of the accident was the failure of the indicator of the closed tailgate or a breakdown in the electrical system of this indicator, which led to the installation of the door lock in the unlocked position. Killed 9 people out of 356 on board. ^[13]

• Airport official website
• Airport Flight Information
• Hikam Air Force Base (Neopr.) (Unavailable link) . Archived on May 10, 2004.
• FAI Airport Map ( PDF ) as of August 28, 2008