We received notice from the State Department of Transportation that the Lihue Airport parking lot was closed due to overcrowding on the three day holiday weekend. Bummer. Your editors were heading to the airport. They called it a one-car out/one-car in situation. This is a recurring issue with inadequate parking, especially at peak times like last weekend’s Presidents Day.
The Hawaii Department of Transportation planned to upgrade the Lihue Airport.
The upgrade plans were part of an airport master plan. They included, among other things:
1. Runway compliance work. Lihue Airport (LIH) needed to adapt to federal airport requirements that have existed for 15 years. It is the only airport in the United States that hasn’t already complied with FAA runway safety rules. That has finally been approved (even without the overall plan approval), and work should commence later this year. A runway will be shifted by just under 1,000 feet to increase the safety buffer surrounding it for any landing problems. Approved lighting will also be installed.
2. Three additional gates. The Hawaii DOT/Airports proposed adding three other gates for the sometimes ridiculously overcrowded airport.
Inadequate, antiquated gate facilities are what you’ll find at Lihue Airport. There aren’t enough gates for flights at peak hours, and what can be done is unclear. At present, there is also a problematic non-jetway gate at the far end of the airport (gate 10A). That’s cumbersome for passengers and the airlines that get stuck with it. It features a tiny elevator that allows one wheelchair passenger at a time to descend to the ground to access the plane’s ramp. Other passengers must access the plane by descending the stairs and walking out to a portable ramp. On a recent flight, editor Jeff noted no fewer than 15 wheelchair passengers who had to be boarded via that slow elevator.
3. Building of a CONRAC (Consolidated rental car facility). Those were added at HNL (Honolulu) and OGG (Maui). This move of car rental facilities would have also added hundreds of additional parking spots for residents. It was rejected, however, and now we are faced with the long term problem of not having enough parking spots at Lihue and the lot even being closed at times.
Hawaii DOT/Airports Lihue master plan was rejected.
The state’s master plan for Lihue airport was rejected based on outspoken community hearing input, which, as confirmed by DOT, may not have adequately represented the feelings of the greater Kauai community. It isn’t clear how more people can have input, given that this doesn’t appear to be something that can appear on a voter’s ballot. This is because it is a Department of Transportation issue.
Due to the strong outpouring in opposition, which appeared based largely on the idea that adding infrastructure like gates and parking correlates with adding more flights and traffic, the proposal was quashed.
Hawaii Visitor and Convention Bureau Kauai head Sue Kanoho had these comments: “The people who showed up and testified at the Lihue Airport Master Plan meetings voted against expanding the airport. This is what we have to live with for quite some time… We asked for an additional 200 stalls or if we could add a 2nd level to the current parking lot and that was denied (by the state)…. It was the CONRAC or nothing.”
The whole affair, handled by consultants hired by the Department of Transportation, abruptly ended last year. This came to a head towards the end of Covid, which may have exacerbated the expressed negative visitor sentiment. In talking with the DOT/Airports, they hope to have far broader community input on the next go around.
Kauai’s mayor said that DOT/Airports is striving to increase revenue via airlines since it is how DOT is funded, which he sees as problematic and conflicted. Senate President Ron Kouchi, also from Kauai, seems generally opposed to most Lihue airport improvements. He equates a CONRAC facility with more cars and then questions the island’s ability to have more on the roads. That concern, we understand. On the other hand, Kauai residents suffer because of not having the CONRAC, which DOT says means there cannot be more airport parking. Obviously, on-airport parking is used almost exclusively by residents and not visitors. And there is no private or off-airport parking.
A new Lihue Airport optimization plan is next.
The DOT said that a new plan is currently in the works. It will not address adding additional gates at this time or a consolidated car rental facility. It is expected to work primarily within the current airport footprint. But the plan will include other improvements, such as bathrooms and enclosing the concourses. The time period for such a plan can be up to 10 years, so we shouldn’t look for any immediate relief. An opportunity, perhaps using a different approach, for more community input will return.
With or without that plan, we were told that gate 10A might be set to receive a jetway bridge, which would greatly help passengers and airlines who end up using that existing, problematic stairway gate.
Timing of Kauai flights is another issue.
Mainland arrivals and departures are bunched together and overload the existing facilities. Flights are within the purview of the FAA, whereas the airports are owned by the state and meet federal government requirements. So it isn’t clear if there’s any way to cope with the situation of airline flight schedules. “The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)… regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country… Its powers include air traffic management, certification of personnel and aircraft, [and] setting standards for airports.”
Kouchi last year said he was asking federal representatives to address the FAA and look at capacity issues before approving any more flights landing.
Lihue Airport restrooms remain an eyesore.
When returning home and using one of the airport restrooms, we often ask, “what must visitors think if this is their first impression?” As you may recall, Hawaii airports remain at the bottom in U.S. rankings. The state DOT is planning for improvements, including new restrooms to replace those that were built more than 40 years ago. For example, the new restrooms at Honolulu Airport are a tremendous improvement over their predecessors.
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Near impossible to placate/satisfy everyone’s perspective. Got married at Coco Palms in 1984(still in disrepair); a very special place with Larry singing. Returned many times ..with daughters, relatives & friends to Hawaii, Oahu, & Maui.. yeah. Culture, history, & serenity (to some extent) is wonderful. Paradise has changed though- follow da $. I appreciate local sentiment for too many visitors & impact (e.g. loud, rude, sloppy, clueless).. we raised our daughters to treat/respect others & environment like your own. Airport traffic anywhere is problematic – part of the experience(?). If HI tourism bureau/agency encourages more(or pressured to attract) tourist$, funding for infrastructure should be expected. Priorities..
Traffic congestion is not caused solely by tourists. Employees have to get to work. Hotels and other employers create peaks by having the sane work hours. County bus service is essentially unusable by tourists because of infrequency, indcipherable bus stop locations, and multimiles to destination.
HDOT is a disaster. Their “solutions” to problems just make things worse. The security force at LIH is rude and out of control. Lack of signage and professional enforcement of rules makes it worse.
Just a suggestion. Instead of trying to curtail tourism, why not try educating tourists? I think this topic alone and the various responses is quite enlightening. Of course some will never learn and continue to not care about the land, but it is worth a try…
I recently returned from Kauai and was appalled at the lack of knowledge of diabetic appliances. I traveled through the Spokane and Seattle airport with no problem but every time I travel to Kauai, I have problems getting through security. This has happened 3 times so far and it shows rudeness and discrimination to diabetics.
With all this complaining it seems like locals would have favored a Japanese victory in 1941. That government would have addressed all these concerns 80 years ago with a few thousands crates of ammo like they did in China, the Philippines and Korea.
Alas, Japanese citizens tend to be far more aware of creating offense and much better on following the rules than either Americans or us Brits. Also many came here as engineers to build railroads and irrigation in the sugar cane days. So Hawaiians got used to them.
Kauai is a small island, locals are burned out on tourism and the Uber rich buying up land to create their own little kingdoms.
Mark Zuckerberg needs to be kicked off the island. I agree with them there.
And Bezos and Winfrey. They are the reason why native Hawaiians can’t afford their homelands anymore.
Please remember that kauai is, or was, a small and local community. It is now a mess of traffic and overcrowding for the residents.
Any improvements at the airport will just open up the island to more overcrowding and less quality of life.
Prove to me How and When Hawaii became a part of America like your column states while talking about the airport in Lihue
Kauai has always been behind the curve. The island needs tourist so it would be ridiculous not to upgrade the airport.
Tourist only accounts for 20% of the state’s revenue an Kauai like the other islands would rather see diversification then expand tourism.
This may seem a little off topic, but a lack of State funding that appears to drag projects along for years might be resolved if a state lotto was allowed!!…I don’t mean casinos… The concerns of a small percentage of the population who may have a gambling addiction ( I recall reading that somewhere as being one the excuses for not allowing it…) as opposed to the tax revenue generated by a lottery for schools and infrastructure are minor. People have been asking for it for years, but the State Legislature always vote it out.
Just imagine the beautiful airport remodel or that all schools could get air conditioning.
“We have met the enemy and he is us” – Pogo
Goodbye… and good luck! Gotta go… my flight to Tahiti is boarding.
Hawaii airports are the worst, ugliest and poorly managed…..buckets sitting everywhere in the Honolulu airport when it rains…..new bathrooms dirty and littered…..dark gloomy, dated, poor signage, ag inspection with attitude, empty concessions….
Ah…….welcome…..paradise!
Leave Lihue alone! It’s charming! We don’t need more visitors. We don’t need more parking because we don’t need more cars or else our one road will turn into a nightmare parking lot.
When are leaders going to realize we need to restrict flights so that the visitors will have a better vacation? More people =more stress
Grow some common sense.
I can sympathize with both sides. Kauai is a very special place and I could see why the people there would want to preserve the beauty and way of life from big corporations that are drooling to get their hands on a piece of the island but cutting off tourism seems like it would be taking a step back 100 years and some would welcome that but most wouldn’t.
If I could go back and buy a few hundred acres from Cook I would in a heartbeat but unfortunately the dream of owning a small piece of paradise will most likely stay a dream.
A major problem are those that already own a slice of paradise don’t want to see others get their slice….
Seems like the two sides here can be framed as those that love Hawaii and want to protect it for the future. Many are people that live here or visitors that respect and love Hawaii for what it is. Or those that simply want Hawaii available to them as cheaply as possible and somehow think the more mass tourism the better and so what about the quality of life of the people that live here. They seem to think they’re bring jobs to people to serve their needs is reward enough. Hawaii needs to invest in education for it’s future and support quality tourism to fund it.
The improvement plan wasn’t hijacked at all. Creating an improvement plan was irresponsible when the island’s general plan hasn’t been executed. We can’t accommodate more tourists when we haven’t improved housing and traffic. And we don’t even have an adequate workforce to serve the growing number of tourists. It’s gonna be record numbers every month in 2023, until we hit a wall when tourists get frustrated with waits at the rental cars and hotels.
Improvements in safety, security,air traffic flow and bathroom amenities are fine. However, affordable housing for the local workforce and road improvements in and out of Lihu’e need priority over airport capacity enlargements. The public hearing was a demonstration in democrasy, telling their leadership not to put the cart before the horse.
Lihu airport. Arrived via WestJet from Vancouver approx. 2am Nov.7 departed Hawaiian to Honolulu on HWA at 6:30am Returned to Lihue Nov 11,HWA 11am Departed WestJet Dec15.11:30,to Vancouver. No Problems or delays on getting through Ticketing, Baggage, Security.Howver have always faced problems, with huge lineups and delays going though so called Modern Facilities with new technologies that s slow down processes. Maybe residents have got it right.
Living in a destination community myself, I empathize with those Kauai residents who feel that the visitor traffic has reached capacity. That said, the island has no other way to sustain itself. I wonder if the possibility exists for the island’s leadership to enact some sort of visitor tax – similar to a TBID – that could be used exclusively for community benefit (e.g. schools, medical, services, etc.). Perhaps this might assuage some of the residents opposition to the needed infrastructure upgrades?
Parking is also becoming untenable at Kona Airport on the Big Island. The issue is peer to peer rentals using up several hundred parking spaces a day. On busy weekends and holidays this leaves no parking for residents that want to park and travel. This is also occurring at Hilo airport.
There is already a statute on the books making it illegal to operate a business on state property without a permit but this is not being enforced.
Again, blame SWA for starting fare wars inter island. Yes, it’s nice to fly inter island at a fare that the airlines lose money at but it has long term consequences. SWA has made business decisions from the mainland that don’t take in the account of the local infrastructure or need. Dangle a carrot to fuel growth with no regard for the consequences. They are clueless about Hawaii and treat us as just another leisure market for them to try and exploit.
We, the people of have a constitutional rights to determine if we want improvements at Lihue Airport or in our homeland. It’s important that people who are born and raised on Kauai should increase their knowledge through academic achievements to create a better and clearer vision for Kauai and be a voice and leader for the next generation. We need to speak for ourselves and stand for preservation of the island, yet there can be improvement for self sustainability or community sustainability . We need to know what is our responsibility towards the future generations that they may enjoy the fruits of our labor and paying forward. Remember the life of the land will be perpetuated in righteousness!!
We need education the malihini. Imilani
The COVID shutdown provided a glimpse of what it would be like to shut down the tourist industry dramatically. It was a demonstration of how things would change but one thing that softened the impact was the Federal Emergency COVID support dollars that were pumped in. Tax dollars coming from the mainland without any tourist bodies attached to them. A significant, tourist numbers drop-off would not have that cushion and the results could be catastrophic for employment prospects on the island. Zuckerberg probably doesn’t do a lot of zip-lining, bus touring, or dining out at small local restaurants.
Aloha. I have an idea for long/ short term pkg. The road that goes along the back side of the airport down to Nawiliwili harbor which is the holding pens for all the rental cars could be used with a shuttle transport back to the airport. More jobs and get some of the sitting rental cars back in service and get the rental rates down. I mean, come on. Not all of us are blind. There are available options such as this one. What do you guys think of my idea? Mahalo.
Hi Deb.
Thanks, as always. This has been suggested before. Any parking off airport would be a private venture and is not something that Hawaii DOT would be involved in. We haven’t heard of anyone coming forward with that kind of proposal for the land or the service.
Aloha.
My recent visit proved some of the parking is being used by residents who rent personal cars and allow renters to pick the cars up from the congested parking lot.
You have that absolutely correct Linda. The residents are cutting off their own noses.
Turo are no longer allowed to park their cars at the airport. They now have a shuttle that picks up at Lihu‘e Airport to Kukui Grove Center where the reserved car is located.
We recently visited Kauai and of course flew into Lihue airport. I understand some of the residents concerns, but they need to remember that Kauai survives on tourism. Why residents wouldn’t want to have a first class airport is beyond me and somewhat selfish.
Try to see the situation from a locals perspective: Hawaiian land was taken from them, their culture and resources exploited by corporations with no thought for sustainability. Tourism was fed to Hawaii to “make life better” for locals but the big $ didn’t trickle down. COVID happens and the islands see an explosion of mainlanders who work from home buying even more land and property and the locals are again getting pushed out. Yes, I wish Na Wahine O ke Kai, the Pailolo Challenge and Molokai Hoe canoe races were still happening cuz I appreciate the island culture. This happens all the time in CA, but CA is not a tiny island with severely limited resources and entitled tourists expecting the perfect luau.
Well said SFGPGIRL. My particular beef is with SWA and what they have done. They started a remote inter island operation by hiring a few local ground handling people and do everything else from supply flight crews to dispatch and maintenance from the mainland. They literally boasted about going after Hawaiian, which of course means the jobs they create. Beyond SWA though, there are many examples of people coming here and grabbing what they can with little regard for the overall impact it has.
Thank you SWA…Their business model of flooding a market with cheap tickets to get established and operate at a loss till they can eventually raise their fares is a major factor here. Yes it’s nice to get cheap tickets, but it comes at a cost to the quality of life here. The predatory “SWA effect” is very hard on the Hawaii infrastructure.
Since when do locals get the right to dictate how a federally run airport is to be run or more importantly, brought up to date for safety concerns. Just make the necessary and government dictated updates to the airport that need to be made and stop listening to the noise!
Aloha. Where I live on the mainland is very expensive, and we endure the same concerns as Hawaii about a lack of affordable housing. I will suggest that for both Hawaii and the mainland, if you could magically reduce the cost of housing by half it will still not resemble anything affordable, for rent or purchase. I couldn’t buy today. I will say that the relentless attacks on property owners and tourists will not create the affordability that is desired. I have already abandoned Hawaii due to the costs, over taxation included. Not that long ago I paid $200 per night for a one bedroom condo, last year a studio was $800 per night in the same building. I am not interested in a hotel; I’ll stay home and go to the lake. Good luck folks.
Mahalo
Residents cars parked at the airport? I don’t understand. Is parking that tight or is it a concerted effort to make it difficult for visitors? Maybe they need more towtrucks, or charge locals $50 to park and require a reservation
Kauai people cannot see the future of Kauai. Wants to limit the people visiting there island . Yet they want more jobs, better pay.
The youths who want to continue living on Kauai, needs more opportunities…that only will come with more people visiting and more people moving into Kauai, hopefully creating new business.
Like a tree , you limited the growth it will die. Yet trees bring more fruits and more rubbish.
More tourist industry jobs geared to discount mass tourism are not the key to more opportunities. Plenty of the jobs that is created by that are going begging. What Hawaii needs to do is diversify.
Hope no one on Kauai that opposed these improvements ever complains about traveling in or out of LIH since they caused the rejection of all the improvements. They best not complain about ticket prices, the cost of travel since limiting the supply always leads to increased prices for good and services. Basic Econ.
Fortunately, the dealings I have with LIH are limited to visiting the island, so my wife and I get our bags and then she waits while I take the shuttle to get the rental car and return to the terminal to pick her and the bags up. I have been to over 50 countries over the years and I will way that my most unpleasant dealings with TSA have occurred at LIH. They seem to have an attitude problem there. And please don’t get me started on the FAA. Their motto seems to be “We’re not happy until you’re not happy”. Yes, I am a private pilot and I share this opinion with many. Good luck with getting this mess fixed.
Ghery, I agree with you about TSA at LIH. I work at the airport and there are only a handful of agents who will gladly assist and inform passengers. The remainder seems to think and act as if they are FBI or some type of law enforcement agent.
Just a question: are there off-airport parking lots with shuttles to LIH? Seems like it might be a good local business to start, but I’m on the mainland and don’t know anything about the potential barriers to that.
Nope. I recall many(many) years ago, some guy tried this business on his farmland – he was the “shuttle” but he gave up on that.
Tuoro has leased the back parking lot of a nearby Target store (formerly Kmart/Sears) that used to be always empty (except COVID testing). They have a couple of shuttle busses that take people to/from airport. People who rent out their cars park them at the Target lot. That has helped a little bit with the airport parking.
Really great suggestion. It’s done in so many American airport locations.
Please! This is not anti-visitor sentiment and is not a few residents. The meetings by the consultants in all parts of Kaua’i were packed with people and very well presented by the consultants. Everyone welcomed improvements and compliance with regulations. No one wanted expansion. I invite you to sit in every day Kapa’a traffic for an hour before you even suggest that we should welcome more travelers. Most people enjoy having tourists. What we do not enjoy is having no available home rentals because of the complete dominance of vacation rentals and limited ability to travel around the island because our roads are choked. please offer a more balanced approach in your articles. This article is filled with distortion.
David D
My wife and I have been visiting Kauai for over 20 years.
I totally sympathize with your traffic and housing situation.
I don’t know what the solution is, but airport improvements to bring
more visitors would just make a bad situation much worse.
Seriously? This is absolutely 100% anti-visitor. You say everyone is for improvements, but not expansion. So clearly improvements are great as long as they don’t bring one more visitor to the island. We all, residents and visitors, have the pleasure of sitting in the Kapaa crawl. How about the County take some of the enormous visitor tax haul, which you all rely on, and improve Hwy 56 throughput for everyone?
Most of those tax dollars go to Oahu,in fact they got an even bigger cut of them last weekend.
We already get well over 1 million visitors a year for a population of 72,000. We don’t have anywhere to put more tourists, and their experience will deteriorate if we expand capacity even more. I am all for more parking, but that expansion plan came out of nowhere and makes no sense given current issues on the ground here.
Great comment. We like it the way it is or we would not have stood our ground. If you don’t like it then don’t come.
Ah – I see. We want your money, we just don’t want any inconvenience. Perhaps tourists could just mail you their money and stay home.
On the bright side, LIH finally has [1] a lobby bar, and [2] WiFi in the lobby bar.
We are lucky to have retired neighbors and friends who use our truck while we are off island. So, they can drop us and pick us up at airport if we are traveling together. It usually costs me a dinner or a few beers on arrivals, but well-worth it.
Goodbye Hawaii hello Costa Rico
and Caribbean, don’t go where
you are unwelcome.
$ from endless fees and taxes somehow keep going up while the airports where the people come to don’t see improvements
Hawaii is governed like a third world country, but Ca is right behind Such corruption and stupidity
David has it correct. I’m a 72 yr old retired contactor who had a nice townhouse in Princeville for 12 yrs. Probably should have kept it. Just had my car stolen in Kapaa that I keep with a friend. Car was totaled by some resident. So thinking about housing for more locals seems impossible even with all the land and other resources. Think hydro electric systems? The local politics is not for the little guy. Your foolish lockdown not the pandemic is their fault. Are the cause of most additional real estate inflation. The tech remote working put out of balance forever a balance of a local economy that most Hawaii’s could have had a chance to live with modest real estate value. So I wish the best for Kauai.