On Thursday, July 28, at 8 AM Hawaii time, you can take part in planning the future of Lihue (LIH) Airport on Kauai. It’s easy to sign up here and the public is welcome.
Planning for Kauai airport modernization.
Sponsored by the Lihue Business Association, the webinar will address upcoming planned changes for the 9-gate airport. This year the state approved $6.7 million for ticket lobby and gate area improvements. But what about adding more gates with increased traffic? That’s part of the discussion for this meeting.
The airport plan goes back nearly 40 years and is past due for updating. Currently, there’s a massive shortage of parking, limited passenger areas, and poor air conditioning. When delays occur, this gets even worse since there’s nowhere to accommodate travelers. Also, gates back get backed up, with planes having to wait on the tarmac for prolonged durations.
The proposal from the state DOT was to expand the number of gates by three. That, however, has received widespread community pushback. It is due mainly to the fear that more gates will mean more flights resulting in more visitors that the island’s deficient infrastructure is incapable of handling.
The state is forecasting 4.5 million annual Kauai passengers.
At the upcoming webinar, we’ll all learn about this essential plan and the DOT vision for accommodating the enormous visitor load. There will be time allotted for your questions and answers.
We could not find recent state data on Lihue passenger count, but we believe it to be approximately 3 million. That has increased at least tenfold in the past 50 years. But, the island has done little to keep up its infrastructure to accommodate that growth. It is unclear how Kauai airport and the island can increase their capacity to accommodate additional tourism.
The speaker will be Ross Higashi, Deputy Director, Airports Division, Hawaii Department of Transportation. Accompanying him will be Craig Davis, Kauai Airports District Manager, Davis Yogi, the airport administrator, and others, including members of the state legislature. We wouldn’t be surprised to see Governor Ige attend as well. He also opposed the gate expansion plan and called that aspect “tone deaf.”
Read: Hawaii Airport Parking Is Full. Is Turo Part Of The Problem?
Please share your experiences at Kauai’s airport and what you think should come next for LIH.
Ige and Green are the lollipop 🍭 kids,they blow into town and make sure everyone gets one to quell the crowd. They don’t care, there’s no line for them! With the Increase in Tourism comes the Responsibility to move people quickly, not punish them for personal reasons. They will become “Moody” and a Disruptive Force if inconvenienced too much. That’s worthy of Complaints from Everyone and Entitlement will be prevalent.3 gates will help, none of this will stop increased Tourism so why punish and enrage those paying the bills. For now it’s the Best Advice. Recoup the improvements by a small fee, it seems to be extremely popular and makes sense for this.
Hello, I just want to say that I love the Kauai airport the way it is. When you depart the plane you really feel like your on your own island there is no commercialism there is an open air walkway to the baggage claim you just get this ahhhh moment we are here.
Of course if you build it they will come and that is a double edge sword the loss of the quaintness or the economy growth.
Some things are best left alone even though the population is growing the old is still attainable which makes Kauai so appealing.
Long live the past and let the future land somewhere else😊🌺
For Lihue Airport before continuing any construction.
A termite inspection should be done on the termite eaten beams which supports the flooring of the Airports Administration Office. Below this flooring houses Hawaiian Airlines.
If elected Mayor, I will do everything in my power to stop the expansion of the airport. The corporate and United Nations Agenda to takeover this island must end.
This is not in the best interest of the local people or the County.
What about just making more seating options for passengers waiting, and having a baggage claim with air conditioning. And more places to sit and eat. That’s it.
Great, let’s fix up terminal, but please don’t expand the capacity. There’s enough visitors, we don’t need more.
Affordable restaurant food, better signage that tells visitors they must go through agriculture check before checking luggage. Attitude adjustments to TSA employees and meet FAA runway length minimum requirements.
1st – replace the TSA agents with “user friendly” people. I recall one interaction I had with one person who asked how I was doing. I said, “Fine”. His response, in a less than friendly manner, was “See that it stays that way!”. Really? Had I been able I would have fired him on the spot. It left a rather negative feeling in my mind, and we’ve now been to Hawaii about 27 times (most of them to Kauai).
2nd – Kauai is crowded enough already. At about 3,000,000 visitors a year. Increasing airport capacity to 4,500,000 per year would be intolerable. Kauai would cease to be the relaxing place that it is already in danger of losing. Improvements to the terminal to increase passenger comfort (leaving, arriving is fine) would be welcome
Excellent idea to replace TSA-employed screeners with ones employed by a private screening contractor. This is done at 22 airports in the US under the Screening Partnership Program, the largest ones are at SFO and Kansas City. They are held to the same standards as the TSA employees and generally are rated as better at their jobs (as well as having higher customer service scores).
At Kauai’s Airport, I would love to see:
• Local food vendors, and possibly the opportunity to pre-order on-line to allow passengers to bring a boxed lunch or dinner on their flight.
• Proper signage so first timers know to do their Ag check before getting in another line.
• QR codes with current info on where to pick up groceries (with store hours), farmers market info, etc. for arriving guests.
Hello,
My wife and I are frequent visitors and condo owners on Kauai with family living on Island. The airport upgrades should be for safety compliant runways, a remote parking lot, and expanded gate seating areas which are currently cattle pens. Since island is already stretched on infrastructure, just concentrate on enhancing quality of visits. Less stress on the island itself, the local population, and buoys prices while maintaining quality of life and experience on island for all.
We love Kaua’i, but 4.5 million visitors per year would be intolerable for such a small island and it’s resources. It’s too crowded now, and we go in the “slow” season.
Aloha, BOH!
Hi Ed.
Thanks for the feedback. We appreciate your 195 comments to date.
Aloha.
Limit the number of people that can visit the island comfortably and leave the island as it is now.
The first time I flew into Lihue airport (2010), my impression was very favorable. It was charming with the open-air baggage claim and Hawaiian music. Departures can be challenging for all the reasons mentioned. We normally fly out after 10PM and have noticed the only restaurant is fairly small and always busy. As for gates, they can get cramped and uncomfortable. We sometimes travel out of the Sanford-Orlando airport where there is one waiting area for several gates. When your flight is called, you proceed down to the boarding area. It’s different, but it makes the best use of limited space and the waiting area is never crowded. We love Kauai and hope that any changes are for the better.