If Hawaii Flight Delays/TSA Don't Get You, Traffic + Parking Will

If Hawaii Flight Delays/TSA Don’t Get You, Traffic + Parking Will

We are still in the midst of unprecedented Hawaii travel delays, and this weekend we found them to be both on the ground and in the air. If you were caught in any of these like we were, here’s your chance to vent.

Start with Hawaii flight delays.

At the time of publishing Sunday, 52 domestic flights were reported as delayed at Honolulu Airport.

16 Southwest Airlines
1 American Airlines
2 Alaska Airlines
1 Delta Airlines
4 Mokulele Airlines
28 Hawaiian Airlines

While at Maui Airport, there were 28 flights delayed

13 Southwest
1 Alaska Airlines
1 Mokulele Airlines
11 Hawaiian Airlines
2 WestJet

That’s enough to send shock waves since it translates to 23% of Southwest flights and 14% of Hawaiian flights that were late in Honolulu. On Maui, 30% of Southwest flights and 13% of Hawaiian flights were delayed.

Hawaii TSA delays.

Now moving on to TSA, we found that wait times at Maui Airport were longer than one hour for at least three consecutive hours on Sunday. How much more, we don’t know, as that’s as much of a delay as the MyTSA app displays.

By contrast, the other Hawaii airports appeared to be operating normally, with TSA delay times of under 30 minutes reported. Rob flew to Honolulu yesterday and picked an early flight to avoid both long TSA lines and in order to find parking. Remember to download the MyTSA App so you can check wait times before leaving.

Road delays are common in Hawaii: So be prepared.

If you were heading towards Lihue airport yesterday, like both editors Rob and Jeff were, it wasn’t a good day at different times. No, it wasn’t an accident that closed the road, but instead, tree trimming reduced the only highway to one shared lane for many hours. It resulted in a 60-minute road delay heading towards Lihue from Kauai’s westside and more than a 2 hours delay going in the opposite direction. We felt bad for visitors stuck in traffic and not on the beach, for those who may have missed flights and activities.

Then Rob got caught in a huge traffic jam on Nimitz Highway in Honolulu en route to HNL. For whatever, reason, the highway was closed and what normally is an easy drive on a Saturday afternoon turned out to be the opposite. He almost missed his flight and had to reroute on the H1, which thankfully was clear of traffic.

We have to say that both of us were remiss in not diligently checking Google Maps before driving. What a mess. Remember to do that to allow more time to vacation and less time sitting in traffic.

Parking at Lihue Airport is a problem that’s about to get worse. Kona too.

Airport parking, specifically on Kauai, has been a serious problem for months. Some say it is partly Turo-related, although Turo is making deals to find alternate parking. So we aren’t sure. But one thing we know is that starting tomorrow, 10% of the already minuscule parking lot will be off-line. And that will go on for months while a repaving project is in process.

And this report just in from Kona. “Parking is also a dismal prospect here in Kona. Rerouting parking to employee lots has not mitigated this situation either. This has become a real problem for those of us who have rather frequent medical appointments with specialists in Honolulu!!”

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21 thoughts on “If Hawaii Flight Delays/TSA Don’t Get You, Traffic + Parking Will”

  1. Honolulu Highway driving is ever changing moment to moment, anything can and typically does mess things up. Been there and have experienced just about everything conceivable. As for parking in other airports, those responsible for the Airport have Zero foresight and planning abilities. They know the problems and haven’t done anything to relieve the problems. Adequate parking facilities should be available. Why is it going to take Months to pave Inadequate Parking? The structures, if any, are concrete. Apparently there is a Major problem existing there, ever consider 24/7 paving to eleviate problems and get the job done in a Reasonable amount of time?

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