Honolulu Airport, which is four years into a modernization program, still doesn't have a ringing endorsement from passengers who travel through its terminals.

However, state tourism liaison Marsha Wienert said she expects that to change as a 12-year, $2.3 billion project to improve airports statewide takes hold.

Honolulu was tied for 15th out of 21 medium-size airports last year in a J.D. Powers and Associates customer satisfaction survey released yesterday. That was an improvement from 18th place in 2008 and about the same as in 2007 when it finished 15th out of 25 airports. Medium-size airports are defined as having 10 million to fewer than 30 million passengers per year.

The top medium-size airport was Kansas City International, with 742 points on a 1,000-point scale. Honolulu Airport was tied with Cleveland Hopkins International Airport with 675 points.

Honolulu's overall rating was 3 (with 5 the best). In the six main categories that contributed to rankings, Honolulu finished with a 3 in all of them — accessibility, baggage claim, check-in/baggage check process, terminal facilities, security check and food and retail services.

“;Realizing that our customer satisfaction and our user efficiencies needed to be increased, those are two of the reasons why we actually started on the airport modernization plan (in March 2006),”; Wienert said. “;We are in the middle of the plan as we speak,”; she said. The goal “;is that we will have a facility that increases visitor satisfaction and the users' ability to operate as efficiently and effectively as possible while having the safest and securest airport we can.”;

The state has so far eased congestion in the interisland ticket terminals with an in-line baggage system that screens luggage behind ticket counters and does not require passengers to carry bags from the counter to a security machine. A similar system is now being installed in the mainland terminal.

Another major improvement has been improving the arrival process for international passengers.

And a major concourse is being expanded in the interisland terminal, the first expansion in about 15 years.

A destination can be made or broken in the first and last impressions, “;and that first and last impression when visitors arrive here is of our airport,”; Wienert said.

In other categories, Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport ranked first among large airports (30 million or more passengers) with 705 points, while Indianapolis International Airport led the way among small airports (fewer than 10 million passengers) with 777 points.

The J.D. Powers study is based on responses from more than 12,100 passengers who took a round-trip flight in 2009 and evaluated departing and arriving airports.