After years of construction, Honolulu airport opens $270M Mauka Concourse

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - A new era began Friday at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport as the new Mauka Concourse opened.

The 230,000-square-foot concourse has enough room for six wide-body, or 11 narrow-body gates.

Construction on the concourse began in June 2018, and cost $270 million. It’s the first major gate expansion at the airport since Terminal 1, which was opened in 1993.

DOT says the new area will provide relief during peak travel times.

”The difference that you will see is that during the peak periods each day between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. when there’s a lot of congestion at the gates. So that will help deplete the congestion,” said Ross Higashi, of the state Department of Transportation’s Airports Division.

“Basically, this will not only help passenger traffic, but the airlines. They’ll be able to work more efficiently because there won’t be delays due to gate shortages.”

The concourse will also help with lines at TSA checkpoints as six additional lanes will be added.

Hawaiian Airlines CEO Peter Ingram says this will improve the overall travel experience, especially for inter-island travel.

”We are very excited to provide more space for our guests and more gates for the airplanes,” he said.

“If you have ever arrived on an airplane and had to hold waiting for a gate, it is one of the annoyances that people really want to avoid. So, having more gates available and having it all near our check-in facility is going to make the airport experience even better here in Honolulu.”

The last major piece of Honolulu’s airport modernization project is finishing construction of a new, five-story structure to house all rental car operations.

It will essentially be it’s own terminal to include customer service, returns, fueling, vacuuming, washing and maintenance for the four major rental car companies.

That final phase could wrap up sometime early next year.

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