Posted on: Tuesday, August 7, 2001
Editorial
Airport: Make it a destination itself
While the latest plans for Honolulu International Airport fall short of the wildly ambitious ideas on the table at the height of the Japanese tourism and investment boom, they are still welcome and long overdue.
As reported by Transportation Writer Scott Ishikawa, some $200 million in renovations are planned for the main terminal of the airport over the next four years.
While some of the changes are simple upgrades needed to catch up with the times (the last major work on the terminal was in the early 1980s), others are designed to enhance the experience of arriving or departing from the facility.
This second aspect cannot be allowed to slip into second place.
While the airport and its environs have some graceful touches, the experience of flying in and out of Honolulu is, by and large, far away from what people have in mind when they think of Hawai'i. The airport is not nearly as friendly, open, natural, tropical or exciting as it could be.
And this is no small thing. First and last impressions count for a great deal in measuring the overall satisfaction of a visit to the Islands. What our visitors get is a somewhat confusing tour through a dark, closed-off structure with no clear route from here to there.
Those who use the parking garage and must figure out how to go up to get down, or down to get up, to the terminal face additional challenges.
The Neighbor Island terminal, meanwhile, is a testimonial to efficiency over beauty.
As the improvements go forward, planners and engineers should think long and hard about the interior gardens that once were the centerpiece of the airport. While the gardens are still there — for the most part — they have been effectively taken away from the airport experience for most visitors.
Our airport needs sunlight, tropical foliage, Asian and Pacific art, music, entertainment excitement and a pervasive feeling of aloha.
Plans for a people mover, a central information and security checkpoint and other changes are important. But so too is the pure experience of the airport.
