Posted at 12:52 a.m., Friday, July 27, 2007
Number of travelers using Kona Airport increasing
Associated Press
The number of passengers traveling through Kona International Airport is expected to continue increasing and exceed 4.5 million travelers by 2030, according to recent forecasts.The tiny open-air airport, which uses walk-up stairways to the aircraft, hosted 3 million passengers last year. That figure is expected to grow to 3.4 million in 2012 and 3.7 million in 2017, according to figures presented at a recent master-plan meeting.
"All of the planning from here to 2008 will be dealing with those numbers," said Chris Parsons, a member of the airport's master planning team.
The master plan help guides future airport development for the next 25 years, while considering potential environmental and socio-economic impact for future growth, according to the state Transportation Department.
The noise compatibility study is being updated concurrently with the master plan, and is a voluntary program which identifies any incompatible noise levels around the airport and recommends mitigation measures to decrease any incompatibility to minimize and control air traffic generated noise.
The next major step is for planners to present proposals for meeting the needs of the airport, Parsons said.
In June, $5 million of state funding was released to implement and design improvements to the airport, starting with construction of 100 additional parking stalls. The airport also recently received millions in federal money for safety improvements.
