Hawaii’s airports just got the kind of national attention nobody wants. In the latest JD Power survey, Honolulu International Airport landed near the bottom of all large airports, while Maui’s Kahului Airport sat close to last among medium airports. Honolulu scored 617 out of 1,000, a small step up from last year’s 593 but still well under the large-airport average of 733. Kahului came in at 626. By contrast, Tampa led its peers at 851, and Indianapolis topped its at 713.
Honolulu wasn’t the absolute bottom. Big names like Washington Dulles, Montreal, and Philadelphia scored even lower. Maui, for its part, still managed to outrank Ottawa, Cleveland, and Edmonton.
What the survey revealed.
JD Power scored airports on everything from getting to and through the airport, check-in, security, baggage, terminal facilities, and food and retail, to the overall arrival and departure experience. Scores rose across the country this year, but Hawaii’s airports still dragged near the bottom.
Anyone who has flown here knows what those numbers mean. Restrooms that cannot keep up with the crowds. Escalators and walkways are often broken for months at a time. Gate areas are so full that people avoid the ancient furniture and sit on the floor. Security lines that stretch too long make the flight feel like the easy part. Scores this low are simply what those frustrations look like on paper.
The cost versus experience disconnect.
The sting is sharper because of what visitors pay to get here. Hawaii hotel rates now regularly top $400 a night or $800 for luxury. Add in resort fees, parking charges, and the new Green Fee, and the price of a Hawaii vacation has never been higher.
Then comes the airport welcome. Crowded gate areas with old and inadequate seating, restrooms that cannot handle the load, and food options that feel stuck in another era entirely. It is a jarring mismatch. Hawaii sells itself as a world-class destination, yet its airports often fail to live up to the promise.
This is not just about convenience. Airports are the first and last stop for millions of visitors. When that first impression feels chaotic or run down, it sets the tone for the rest of the trip.
Modernization efforts fall short.
The state points to a long list of projects at Honolulu, including a consolidated rental car center, new gates, and ongoing terminal work, with more minor upgrades on Maui. Some progress is visible. Travelers see new spaces and smoother car rental logistics at HNL and OGG. But they also see the basics still falling short, from bathrooms to broken people movers.
The perception remains that Hawaii talks about fixing its airports more than it delivers changes people can feel in real time.
Travelers also point to the dismal food and retail as a symptom of the system. HMSHost has had a near-lock on concessions for years, leaving poor choices, little competition and high prices. One longtime airport worker told us the contracts are so tight that change is almost impossible, which is why restaurant choices remain limited and completely out of step with what Hawaii visitors expect.
The impact on local residents.
This is not just a visitor problem. Residents deal with the same lines, the same broken facilities, and the same delays. For those who commute interisland out of necessity, island-hopping in Hawaii often means running straight into Kahului’s bottlenecks or Honolulu’s congestion. It is part of daily life.
What should be a simple 25-minute hop between islands can easily stretch into a two-hour ordeal once the airport experience is added in.
No airport authority, same old bottlenecks.
Most major U.S. airports are run by independent airport or port authorities with their own boards and financing. Hawaii’s airports remain inside the state bureaucracy, and repeated attempts to create an independent authority have stalled at the legislature. Airport workers and contractors have long said that the structure slows decisions and drags out even basic maintenance.
We reported on this earlier in Hawaii promised a world-class airport. Veteran staff recalled authority proposals being blocked. One reader with contracting experience described how outside expertise was dismissed as not “local enough.” Travelers keep pointing to long, dreary walks to immigration with no restrooms, broken walkways, and torn carpeting in the international arrivals terminal.
The cultural gardens at Honolulu Airport are a rare and wonderful highlight, but they cannot disguise the bigger shortcomings.
The thread running through it all is governance. Until the structure changes, the daily experience will continue to lag.
How Hawaii compares with other airports.
Airports that score well right now are not necessarily the largest or the most glamorous. They are the ones that feel simple, clean, and local. John Wayne led large airports at 730, while Tampa and Dallas Love Field followed. On the medium list, Indianapolis kept the top spot, with Ontario and Buffalo close behind. Those places stood out for their easy navigation, basic working conditions, and better food and retail options, which is exactly what travelers say they want.
Hawaii can get there. Other leisure destinations have modernized while moving huge volumes of people. The ingredients are not complicated. They are just overdue in the islands.
Can Hawaii change course?
The airports are not going anywhere, and neither is the criticism. Travelers are not asking for luxury. Visitors and residents want clean and reasonably modern bathrooms, escalators that work, shorter lines, and an easier path from plane to beach. None of that is out of reach.
Yet year after year, Hawaii’s airports remain one of the weakest links in the visitor experience. The latest survey is only the newest reminder.
Have you encountered these issues at Honolulu, Kahului, or Hawaii’s other airports? Or have you had a smooth experience? Share your worst airport horror story or your best unexpected experience in the comments below.
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Do you really expect a state that wants less tourist’s to improve or make services more convenient? Same thought as available restrooms and their cleanliness. No improvement and never will. Bad conditions always scream for the need for more all mighty $$$$$$$.
TSA lines are to long in Hawaii. It takes to long to get to your gate. Been to Iowa and Denver. Twice in the last two years. Things there move faster with more people flying then Honoluu airport. Honoluu’s airport just doesn’t feel friendly and baggage check in is confusing. Should be one line for everything to get done.
Compared to our layover in Honolulu in 2020, long lines, general chaos, our experience in June was a welcome change. Upgraded interior, larger bathroom stalls to accommodate your luggage, and most appreciated a vehicle to transport you the mile away to your gate.
At 78 years old this was truly appreciated. All airports with long walks to gates should invest in these – much better than wheelchairs.
My husband got food poisoning from the former Chinese food vendor, whose name escapes me, that was in Terminal 1 back in 2012. He started getting sick a few hours after we checked into our hotel in Kona. Fortunately, it wasn’t bad enough to seek medical assistance, but we lost the first full day of our vacation while he recovered. We were also grateful that our Volcano Tour was able to be rescheduled, as we were supposed to take it that same day.
All of Hawaii’s airports enjoy a spectacular physical location. But that’s where it all ends! The terminals, and basic infrastructure are beyond needing repair.
LIH wasn’t mentioned in this particular article, but I know BOH editors are very familiar with it. I remember my first flight to LIH from HNL in 1965. Back then the terminal was basically an A-frame stucco building with a “red dirt” colored shingle roof and a chain link fence. Quite frankly today the terminal at LIH is basically just a larger and a bit more modern version of the same! The only good thing about LIH airport is the spectacular approach over the Nawiliwili Harbor and Kalapaki Beach! Oh, it’s also fun to be greeted by Kauai’s now famous wild chickens upon arrival. JFK, LAX, SFO, DFW, etc, etc, will never be able to top that!
We just flew out of OGG yesterday. We have TSA pre-check and the lines still seemed to take forever to get through. This airport is terrible. And why is everyone who works there so unpleasant? If you hate people, you need to find another line of work.
I disagree. I live on Maui and use OGG frequently. It has one of the smoothest flows through TSA checkpoints in the country, and I travel all over the mainland. You have fallen victim to the trap of judging an entire process based on a single experience. That’s not good judgment.
i consider HNL to be the worst airport i have ever used to change planes at especially to interisland
I’ve been flying to Hawaii for 35 years and don’t expect anything to change in my lifetime. Does anyone know where fees and taxes and federal grants really go? Certainly not in infrastructure. And as always–Always–in Hawaii, there is a woeful lack of planning and foresight. I just flew in and out of OGG for about the 100th time. Other than the new rental car location, has anything really been done to improve and “modernize” the airport? Going through TSA security lines, I turned to my companion and said that I was suddenly reminded of third world airports I’ve been in. Is it graft, corruption or just incompetence and indifference by one local and state administration after another. It must be part of the aloha spirit to just not care as long as the trade winds blow and the fishing is good.
Everywhere in Hawaii suffers from low expectations when it comes to anything that involves the government. No one expects that the government will make anything better, whether it affordable housing, airports, roads, the multi-billion dollar rapid transit boondoggle, the schools, building permits, the economy or anything else. We keep electing the same people who appoint their pals, or the former politicians to boards and commissions that do nothing except pay salaries to the board and commission members.
drive from airport to Waikiki through rather ugly industrial area. not a good first impression of tropical paradise.
But that’s just the thing: Honolulu is not a tropical paradise. It’s a modern American city in a tropical location. You have fallen victim to all of the hype from multinational tourist corporations that sell Hawaii as a “tropical paradise.” It isn’t. No different than Los Angeles or Miami or Houston. Lots of people living their lives and working. I think you may want to go to Fiji or some Third World country where tourism is the only option. There you might not see an industrial area. But you might also have water rationing and sporadic electrical services and poor healthcare.
With the growing prevalence of late departures, there are now more over night layovers, but unless you can access an airline lounge there is not really any place to sleep at HNL.