Honolulu Airport was back in action this morning after a long night in which hundreds of weary passengers slept on floors.

Hawaiian Electric Co. restored full power to the airport early this morning, said Tammy Mori, a Department of Transportation spokeswoman. Individual airlines worked to restore their computer systems.

“We’re still recommending to get to the airport early and call your airlines,” Mori said this morning.

Much of the airport was on back-up power for most of the night, but many outbound flights were delayed. Inbound flights were allowed to land.

Power at the airport went out shortly before 7 p.m. Backup generators kicked in and the airport had partial power. The control tower and runway lights were immediately operational and inbound flights arrived, although some flights had been diverted to neighbor island airports.

“We had all the power restored by about 9:30 to the entire central concourse, where most of the flights were going out,” Mori said. At 9:45 the overseas terminal had power restored with mainland and international flights. Two-thirds of the airport was operational at 9:30 p.m. yesterday, and flights were starting to go out. Four out of five generators were working. The interisland terminal had power restored at 9:45 p.m., she said.

Hundreds of travelers were weary of waiting for their planes to depart, many were hungry and thirsty and unable to get anything to eat and drink for hours.

With limited power last night, passengers were funneled through one checkpoint area and their bags manually checked — a slow process. Passengers waited near their airline ticketing counters for their flight to be called.

“Those with flashlights, please help each other,” a Transportation Security Administration officer told passengers.

Passengers in front of the United Airlines ticket counters slept on the cold, stone floors because all United outbound flights were canceled last night. Some had waited in check-in counter lines hundreds of people long earlier in the night.

At midnight, Pam and Tom Dawson, both 42, of Dallas, remained at the airport, outraged that United was the only airline that canceled all flights. They had traveled from Kauai after an eight-day stay and arrived at 7:20 p.m. They deplaned off the back of the aircraft, were escorted “one at a time through security, then escorted through the darkened corridors into a dark baggage room,” Pam said.

The couple and their three teenage children then stumbled along to the United ticket counter in the dark, Tom stubbing his toe, and the family going in circles.

“Hundreds and hundreds of people stood in line,” Pam said. “This whole thing was completely filled with people, and no one told us anything.”

Then a voice over the loudspeaker announced, “Sorry to inform you. All flights are canceled. There’s not enough power to generate runway lights for United,” Pam said.

United passengers began leaving while others remained, curling up on the floor for the night.

Mori said each airline made their own decision whether to delay flights.

Dawson and others called the 1-800 number and were told the airline was not responsible for the power failure, and would not assist them in finding any alternate flight arrangements or accommodations in Honolulu.

A security officer stopped by and explained the United staff “all went home.”

“It’s not their fault the power went out,” Tom Dawson said. “But they could have helped us out. They didn’t have to leave us high and dry.” 

The Dawsons were forced to take two separate flights and were to arrive after midnight tomorrow.

Chantal Seitz, 45, of Aiea said, “It’s our 25th wedding anniversary, so it’s making it quite memorable.” She and her husband, Matthew, were heading for DisneyWorld.

“I honestly thought it was just going to be for a few minutes,” Seitz said. “Then we started listening to the radio. That’s when the sense of unease started to creep in.

“I’ve asked ticketing agents, but they don’t know how long the delays will be.”  

Other travelers were afraid they would miss their connecting flight home.