Now, the state Transportation Department is launching a new effort to transform the dark, sprawling, leaking facilities into a revitalized jewel that serves more than 20 million travelers a year.

"We need enhancements that will help us come up with a world-class facility," said state Transportation Director Rod Haraga. "We want it. We need it. And we're going to get it."

Immediate plans call for spending millions of dollars this year on pressing maintenance problems, including repairing roof leaks that sometimes make it seem "like it's raining more inside than out," Haraga said.

The leaks were obvious around the airport yesterday. Inside the Lobby 7 departure area where American, Continental and Northwestern passengers board flights, a maintenance worker set down buckets and pads to collect water dripping from the ceiling.

Parts of Honolulu Airport are being worked on now, and about $8 million has been set aside for terminal modernization this year. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

"Right now some of our customers say the airport looks like a prison or something out of the the early 1980s that hasn't changed at all," said Duke Ah Moo, vice president of operations at Pleasant Island Holidays. "It's tremendously important for them to have a good arrival experience, something that says Hawai'i. Instead, the first thing they see is the tarmac and a lot of concrete."

Haraga wants the state to spend millions this year on maintenance, air conditioning and other improvements that can enhance the experience of a visitor whether he's using the airport for the first or 20th time.

The state already has made major security improvements at the airport and in the past year added structural canopies to protect passengers in the area between the curb and terminal buildings.

Among the highest priorities this year are spending almost $9 million to replace leaking ceilings in the 'Ewa and Diamond Head concourses, and $30 million to provide a new air-conditioning system in the international terminal.

"Using our current signs, I defy anyone to even find where the restrooms are," Haraga said.

Twice before the state has made similar plans to improve the airport, which has not seen major renovations since the 1980s.

In the 1990s, when the state still had a $200 million budget surplus, plans were drawn up for a new 1.4-million-square-foot complex that would have included a five-level terminal, an extension of the Diamond Head concourse and an automated "people mover" system.

Those projects were scrapped, however, when the first Gulf War broke out, the state's economy collapsed and the budget surplus evaporated.

"It was a heck of a plan and then the economy just headed south on us," said Rex Johnson, executive director of the Hawai'i Tourism Authority.

By 2001, though, things had improved enough that a $200 million, four-year renovation plan was readied, including added gates and aesthetic improvements.

The state announced those plans just one month before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks put things on hold again. Since then, most money for improvements has been spent on security.

The airport shape and design was completed in the early 1970s and is notable for its lack of relevance to Hawai'i, said architect Frank Haines, one of the authors of "Architecture in Hawaii."

"It had a couple of nice touches, like the garden courtyards, but it didn't really feel any different architecturally from any other place or offer any sense of the state's heritage. It doesn't seem to have any flavor of its own," Haines said.

Today's travelers demand more, having become accustomed to spectacular airport architecture, planning and cultural facilities in other places, Ah Moo said.

"They live in some very cosmopolitan places and see airports with soaring ceilings and museums inside," he said. "Here it's very low ceilings, very constricted and kind of institutional. We need to make them feel like they are in Hawai'i as soon as they arrive."

Passenger Walter Davis said yesterday that he wasn't overly impressed with O'ahu's airport.

"It sort of reminds me of airports overseas — that's not saying it's good or bad," said Walter Davis, 34, of Charlotte, N.C. He has traveled extensively for the Navy although this was his first time at the Oahu airport. "There's really nothing particular that says Hawai'i about it. It just looks like a regular airport."

Passenger Jeff Henegar, 36, said he and his wife were on their way back to Indianapolis after spending a week on O'ahu on business.

Honolulu Airport "is pretty typical," said Henegar, who makes dozens of trips each year all all over the world as a researcher for a large commercial roofing company. He said while some airports are nicer than others, "this one (O'ahu) is probably ready for renovation."

Still, Honolulu Airport was rated ninth in the world among similar-sized facilities last year for overall customer satisfaction, easily beating those in Sydney, Australia; Tokyo; and Barcelona, Spain, according to a recently released report by the J.D. Powers and Associates company.

Ultimately, Johnson said, Honolulu may need a new air terminal and the time to begin planning for it is now.

"These things take a long, long time and huge amounts of money, but at the end of the day, the airport is the first thing they see and the (first) experience of their trip. It's something they take home with them," he said.