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Kokua Line
June Watanabe
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Low daily rates and fare wars make parking at airport tight
Question: Where do employees of the airlines and airport park at Honolulu Airport? I am a very frequent flier, almost daily, and it is almost impossible to find a stall in the interisland lot after 8 a.m. I often see employees walking to and from the lot -- could this in itself be a problem?
Answer: Because of complaints about the lack of parking at the airport, the state Department of Transportation's Airports Division restricted employee parking in 2005.
The majority of employees with monthly parking permits are not allowed to park in the interisland parking structure. The department also blocked access from the overseas terminal parking structure to the interisland parking structure.
Employees may purchase monthly parking permits for one of several employee-only parking lots around the airport, while "a limited number" are allowed to purchase monthly parking permits for the overseas parking structure, said transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa.
Aloha and Hawaiian airlines each are allowed 25 permits, while the Transportation Security Administration is allotted 10 for employees they feel need to have access to closer parking because of their jobs, Ishikawa said.
However, the Airports Division cannot prevent an employee or anyone else from taking an hourly parking ticket, he said. That is what some employees are opting to do, Ishikawa said, noting that Hawaii has one of the lowest airport parking rates in the nation at $10 a day.
That option is especially viable to part-time employees, whose numbers have grown in the past several years.
"Since parking rates have not changed since 1993, many employees, especially those not on an eight-hour-per-day, five-days-per-week schedule, opt to pay the daily parking and not the monthly parking pass," he said.
On top of this, parking became even more of a premium when the airfare war began last year, he said.
There should be some relief after a new, 1,800-stall parking structure is completed in late 2008. Construction is scheduled to begin later this year.
"The added stalls should relieve the parking shortage, hopefully, once and for all, for both passengers and employees," Ishikawa said.
Q: I read your column about security guards ("Kokua Line," July 10) and was wondering about a citizen's arrest. What power does a plain old citizen have to stop somebody if they see a crime?
A: Under Section 803-3 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, "Anyone in the act of committing a crime may be arrested by any person present, without a warrant."
That is the sum of the so-called "citizen's arrest" law. But as we explained in our June 30, 2005, column, police do not encourage nor advocate any private citizen confronting someone committing a crime.
As Capt. Frank Fujii, spokesman for the Honolulu Police Department, told us then, you should instead call police and be a witness.
Got a question or complaint? Call 529-4773, fax 529-4750, or write to Kokua Line, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu 96813. As many as possible will be answered. E-mail to
kokualine@starbulletin.com.
See also: Useful phone numbers