State officials held yet another recent blessing at Honolulu Airport, rolling out what were billed as holiday travel upgrades that are still being promoted now that it’s January. The centerpiece was a new cafe in the Mauka Concourse, framed once again as part of the airport’s evolving first and last impression for visitors.
We decided to walk the Mauka Concourse to see what travelers actually get. The result felt less like a meaningful airport improvement and more like a familiar refresh, a generic operator product, locked in the far corner of the airport, and dressed up in local flavor vocabulary. It is the kind of upgrade that photographs well, sounds good in a transportation press release, and does not change the parts of HNL that consistently frustrate travelers.
What travelers actually keep complaining about.
For years, readers have told us the issue is not that HNL lacks another place to buy coffee. The recurring complaints are about long walks, missing or confusing signage, gate areas with old, limited seating, and stretches where nothing is open when it matters. Brian B. described the late-night reality perfectly after connecting through Honolulu, saying they left Lihue thinking they would eat in HNL, only to find that nothing was open.
Others keep returning to the same theme, that the airport feels frozen in time, no matter how many announcements are made. Bob K. wrote that they visit family in Honolulu every year, and the airport never changes, while Daniel put it more bluntly, saying it feels like nothing much has changed in decades and that patches are not a substitute for any real modernization.
A cafe does not fix the mobility and access failures.
The most consequential comments are not about food at all. They are about basic access and dignity, especially for older travelers and anyone who needs assistance. Karen said she had been abandoned in a wheelchair after being promised help to reach her gate, only for no one to return. Frank echoed what many others have said, that the elderly and disabled are effectively punished by long distances and the lack of practical ways to move between terminals.
Even readers who like elements of HNL, including the iconic cultural gardens and the open-air feel, say the charm does not compensate for the day-to-day breakdowns. Lynn summed up that disconnect by noting that the gardens are indeed beautiful, but they cannot distract from outdated seating, confusing signage, rundown gates, and the lack of options where people actually wait.
The promise gap only keeps growing.
We have heard versions of mid-2026 timelines before, with new names, new vendors, and familiar language that always sounds like progress. Reader Al captured what it feels like to many returning travelers, saying that after 30 years of coming and going through the airport, very little, if anything, has changed.
John’s comparison keeps resurfacing in our comments because it cuts straight to the frustration. If LaGuardia could rebuild while staying open and transform itself from a punchline into a showcase, what exactly is Honolulu’s excuse for still talking about studies and phases?
That context struck us when looking at this latest upgrade. We walked past wide-open areas, some with very limited seating, long stretches without food, and signage that still sends people wandering in the wrong direction. The new cafe sits neatly inside one corner of that reality, a small island of polish surrounded by the same structural problems readers have been pointing out for years.
Part of the frustration is that expectations keep being raised publicly. While the state’s own DOT release announcing the cafe did not name specific future tenants, DOT leadership did so elsewhere. In media interviews tied to the same December rollout, officials said travelers could expect recognizable local names such as Alan Wong, MW Group, Aloha Plate, and Lei Stand to arrive next, with timelines pointing toward mid-2026. Those names have now become shorthand for progress, even as the visible change on the ground remains between invisible and measured.
We have documented this pattern before in the following articles:
The names change, the vendors rotate, and the blessings keep coming, but the airport experience largely stays the same.
When you think about HNL, what is the single fix that would immediately change how it feels to arrive or depart, and why has it still not happened?
Photo Credits: Beat of Hawaii at HNL. Lead photo is Waialua Bar and Cafe.
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I feel like HNL is a museum of a classic 1960’s airport, right down to the massive phone booth banks. And to make people arriving on Hawaiian Airlines walk a mile to baggage claim? My airport experience here is one reason I will.ne er visit Oahu again.
About HNL, I remember my first time landing at HNL in 1965. The “new” terminal still was smelling very fresh and proud as the busy “crossroads the Pacific.”
United and Pan Am dominated, along with several Asian carriers. The 747 was still over a decade away. The place looked and felt exotic. Open air corridors, the old inter island terminal, the lei stand, a beautiful sit-down restaurant with tablecloths overlooked the gorgeous Japanese gardens. Over the years HNL has taken on a tired somewhat worn out look. Infrastructure repairs abound, poor signage, dirty restrooms, inadequate food options, unkept gate areas. HNL is the front porch and front door for the Hawaiian Islands. It definitely needs some TLC to bring back the Exotic Polynesian Magic it once had.
Aloha to all.
I feel the airport is a combination of patched together things. Seems like it’s typical hawaii that is stuck in the past. Old baggage handling systems parts of the airport that don’t have air conditioning and not being open for restaurants and shops after nine o’clock in the evening. With honolulu, being such a destination point. It should have a world class airport like l a x san diego ect. The problem is the people that are making the decisions about upgrading the airport still seem to think they live in a farm town. They keep trying to make an airport that was built in the sixties work today.In two thousand and twenty five.
Totally agree with the article, I’ve been flying back and forth for about 30 yrs and nothing really has changed much, the airport looks worn and dated.
On a stopover last year to Korea, we parked at T2 and food choices were minimal with some cafe and gift shop snacks. Also just in December we rented a car, and I dropped off the wife and bags first at T1, and was frustrated how the return to the car rental merged with outgoing traffic and was backed up which made me worried on getting back to T1 on time. Wish they built a better connection between terminals where you could walk from the car rental to T1. Also surprised that they still the wiki wiki bus, no people movers or better connection between T1 and T2 or car rental center and T1. Maybe the key here is Hawaii needs to change the people in charge of HNL first to make things really happen!
Also Kona’s airport is so old and still using boarding stairs instead of modern jetways! Hawaii needs to modernize all airports!
It’s a new year .. perhaps time to move the ownership and management of the 15 state owned and operated airports to a partnership approach like the majority of airports around the United States. The partnership model will allow for the needed investment, innovation and leading edge ‘creature comforts’ that we should be enabling for Kamaaina and Malihinis. This model would also free up state funds to deploy for other needs (eg : low income housing). It is indeed a ‘win / win’ for all.
Instead of an office buried in the bureaucracy of the Department of Transportation, an independent airport authority that advocates for nothing else but airports and collects its own money from landing fees, thereby, to some degree, cutting the politicians out of the process. Yeah, I know, it will never happen.
1. Bring back The Bus # 20 route.
2. Bring back the bus stops in front of the terminals.
3. Build more moving walkways.
4. Build pedestrian crossing bridges that directly connect the Departures Area and the Car Rental and Parking structures.
Yes, what “Alfred H” said! The answer to the problem is more fees and taxes, obviously! Isn’t that the Hawaiian way? Will things get ‘better’? Well, what exactly do you mean by ‘better’? But have faith, they are ‘working on it.’ Uh-huh.
As a senior with arthritis, I really don’t appreciate those long walks to baggage claim. I have to stop a couple of times to get there, and invariably there is no place to sit and rest my leg (reminds me of ‘the long walk’ at BNA). And yes, with virtually little to no food options once you get past TSA for out-going flights, better bring a bag lunch. HNL is not a so-called ‘world-class’ airport. Someone needs to find out where the money goes. It’s not going into the infrastructure, or building affordable housing, so what politicos are ‘livin’ the life’ while HI stagnates???
re: HNL Airport
Flew in from the Mainland on 19 January. Parked at C-2. Had previously departed from C-7. In both cases, very long walks, but nothing like hiking to or from the United gates in the Diamondhead concourse. No moving sidewalks, probably due to it being an open air airport with rain and high humidity for rusting out any moving sidewalk components.
One issue is the new Skyline train and relocation of the airport stops for TheBus. No signage inside Baggage Claim nor outside on the lower deck sidewalks either saying a rail system exists, nor pointing the way to the station. And no signs in the parking garage giving a path to sidewalks behind the garage leading both to the train station and the adjacent bus stop for the Route W Waikīkī bus. Only some temporary looking signs along the sidewalk indicating right to rail and left to bus.
As for the past 15 years, for this trip, we took Hawaiian Airlines from San Francisco to Honolulu; Honolulu to Kona; Kona to Maui. Results: yes, crowded. However, all three airports were efficiently run, all staff were excellent (helpful, and courteous); impeccable service at the counters, baggage drop-off, and bagged claim. We do not go to the airport to eat meals, just snacks. To us, changes happen behind the scene. None have affected our transitions. Were all our travel expectations met? Yes. Good job to all for making our airport travel experience welcoming. Keep on improving.
I had to go through SEATAC (Seattle) on my way to Salt Lake City a few years ago after a red eye flight out of Honolulu. Got to Seattle first thing in the morning and the place (the areas around the gate where I came out from) was hopping busy. All the restaurants were open and tons of people everywhere. In fact, it was too busy, but it was alive, and still found one table and seats to eat breakfast. Maybe our local airport planners should look around the US (and the world?) and check out how the other airports are making their airports more customer friendly. If coming in to Honolulu late at night, the place is so dead & sort of dark and lonely that it’s creepy.
I don’t think the problem is that airport management needs inspiration of how developed other airports are, the problem as others have pointed out it’s politics and corruption IMO. HNL is a sad airport as an international gateway airport! It showcases what politics and lack of leadership can do to an airport. LOL. Even Hawaiian’s Premier Lounge is a sad excuse of a lounge compared to other airlines and airports. One of the worst paid lounges I’ve ever been to, I’d rather pay for Alaska’s Lounge+ and go to the Sakura lounge in Terminal 2. Can’t wait until Alaska builds their new lounge.
For me, its the long, long walk from an arriving international flight to customs. Long, boring walk. There might have been a moving sidewalk or two, but its mostly walking. Nothing to see. No one around. No restrooms. Other airports would have photos or art or music to liven up a walk like that, not at HNL.
And then near the very end, you actually come to an open area alongside one of the terminal roads. One guy (not real official looking) stands there and points you to the right, where you need to go back in and walk further to immigration and customs.
And both times I’ve done this, after going through customs with my bag, there was no one from Hawaiian to take the bag that was checked through to Kona. Instead I had to walk with the bag to the interisland terminal and get in another line to drop it off. (Someone said the checkin station opened later – why not open when flights are arriving?)
Not a pleasant welcome to Hawaii and the USA!
Well, when you say “If LaGuardia could rebuild while staying open and transform itself from a punchline into a showcase, what exactly is Honolulu’s excuse for still talking about studies and phases?”
You live here and you know the answer. Tourist dollars allows bad behavior from officials and masks the ineptitude. So much money and corruption. There is no pain point to pressure officials to make meaningful change.
FWIW, I just spent a “few” hours in the terminal with the SWA gates (two flights to LIH, both delayed, of course). I can actually recommend the Lahaina Chicken place to anyone that (1) Is Really hungry and (2) for a heavy meal of fried chicken, mashers, gravy, etc.). Price for a three piece not bad for an airport (or even if not at the airport) for enough food to feed a family of 4.
But, yeah, HNL is old and tired and dirty.