ByKen Ige, Star-Bulletin
Visitors use the people mover between the mainland and
interisland gates at Honolulu International Airport.
Hawaiian said its interisland, mainland and South Pacific services will all operate from the interisland terminal building, starting Feb. 19. The airline has about doubled the number of check-in counters on the second floor of the building and will have 28 spaces.
"Go to Terminal 2," said Keoni Wagner, corporate communications director at Hawaiian. "It's no longer known as the interisland terminal, not in our office anyway," he said.
The change was made possible by Hawaiian's $2 million investment in equipment and a shift of the airline's DC-10 gates, for its mainland and South Pacific services, to the ewa concourse at the airport, near Terminal 2.
To get from a Hawaiian Airlines' mainland arriving flight to a neighbor island flight will require no more than a five minute walk, said John Solomito, the airline's vice president of customer service.
Hawaiian's check-in positions will be all in one general area at the ewa end of the terminal facilities.
Solomito said travelers will be able to pick the shortest check-in line and go to any counter to turn in their bags and tickets for interisland or mainland flights. International flights to the South Pacific will require slightly different procedures but will have clearly labeled check-in counters in the same area.
"We don't anticipate any congestion," he said. Solomito said most interisland flights are in the early and late parts of the day and the mainland and South Pacific flights leave in the middle of the day.
Under the new arrangement, Hawaiian has six departure gates allocated exclusively to it and one it shares.
Passengers heading for the ewa concourse for mainland flights will be able to use the airport's first moving-sidewalk. The 250-feet-long "people mover," which has been in place for a few months, connects the Interisland Terminal with the Ewa Concourse of the main terminal.
One key to Hawaiian's new setup is a barcode baggage tagging and reading system.
As passengers check in, each bag will have a laser-readable sticker automatically attached to it and the same code will go on the passenger's ticket.
A conveyor system will take the traveler's bag to the vehicles that take it to the aircraft, directed to the right plane by the laser reading system. That allows the airline to check in bags for any destination at the same counter, Hawaiian said.
The airline said the system will save it about $1 million a year in operating expenses from the convenience of consolidating in one place. There will be no layoffs because of the new automation, Wagner said.