HNL Modernization Progress
 

1. I'm curious what the status is of some of the ongoing projects at HNL. How are things going on that new HA hangar which got stalled last year? Have they made any progress on figuring out what the fate of the commuter airlines will be once the commuter terminal is torn down? Does Island Air's recent ramp up in service affect these plans at all? Now it seems like maybe that Diamond Head commuter terminal wasn't such a bad idea after all. How about the new rental car facility, how's that coming along?

2. After the current projects are done, does HNL have more long term plans for modernization? Particularly airside. The new Mauka concourse looks like it will be nice, but it's barely scratching the surface in terms of what needs to be done. Any plans to eventually rebuild the Diamond Head and Ewa concourses? And the interisland terminal itself... although this is the newest facility at HNL, it's cramped and constantly crowded. The new Mauka expansion should help alleviate congestion there, but do they have any plans to improve the existing airside parts of the terminal?

Based on Google Earth (Imagery as of 2017), I don't believe the project has ever started.

If you're referring to the commuter terminal demolition/Mauka expansion, well yes of course it hasn't started. I was wondering more about how the progress was going on the factors that would enable it to start (HA hangar and commuter airline relocation).

If you're talking about the modernization project as a whole, anyone who's been through HNL recently knows that isn't true. There has been tons of construction going on for quite a while now.

And we have no idea what they are doing...

In terms of the hangar, at least according to the quarterly call back on January 24...

"...on the maintenance hangar, can you just say where you are in terms of completing that?"

Mark Dunkerley: "Sure. No worries. The hangar, so the story of the hangar is one of the state was responsible for constructing the hangar. They signed up with the general contractor that failed to deliver the hangar as specified and they abandoned the contracts with the hangar half complete. Since then, we have reached agreement with the state that we are going to take over the completion of the hangar. Where we are right now is that we have our engineering team just about finished going over listing of all the defects and deficiencies, of which there are sadly many, in the construction to-date. As soon as we get our full handle on that, then we will be in there finishing out the construction of the hangar. We hope that this is going to be a matter of months to complete. But again, until we finish our work, determining on what deficiencies are, it’s a bit premature to give an exact date for when we can have it finished. But it is our plan that we are certainly looking at this as a 2017 event..."

Well that's not really the case... We know they tore down the old rental car facility and built a temporary one. They've updated lighting, renovated restrooms, and added retail. They enclosed and air conditioned the main TSA checkpoint. They've been working on replacing the roof at the overseas terminal. And they've started construction on the new HA hangar.

Thanks! This will delay the Mauka Concourse even more, but that probably isn't a bad thing at this point since Island Air's expansion may have made the issue of where to relocate the commuter airlines a bit more complicated.

Is that why the car rental facility is so 'eh'? Went thru last May and was shocked how bare bones the facility was...

Yep! They built it with the expectation that it would be torn down in a few years.

The original schedule had everything completed by the 3rd Quarter of this year.

Attachment 27730

Just by observation and talking to my friends who live in Hawaii, it seems that most major construction projects are not completed on-time due to the logistics process (e.g. delays in materials, labor, permits, etc.).

Just like Rail. :eek:

I've always wondered, there are these empty support columns on the H1 on top of Nimitz running outside HNL (from when H1 was built?), is that where rail would go? And from the Modernization map posted inside HNL the station is way outside the airport on top of H1/Nimitz. Is the plan to put it really far and hence a long walk so our corrupt city council members can keep getting their bribes from the taxi/shuttle/transportation industry?

It won't be that much of a walk, and anyhow it will have dedicated pedestrian bridges/walkways so it will be easy to get to. I think it would be tough to build it closer to the terminal because the parking garages would be in the way. The bigger problem for the rail in terms of competition with shuttles/taxis is that it won't go to Waikiki.

Today, the curtains were unveiled via the Star Advertiser and their front page story of what is going on with the hangar. All I can say is wow. I agree with one of the sub-contractors that was interviewed...."how can the state be so stupid"? But, what else is new with how things operate in this state. Talk about a freaking mess.

Here's the story: http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/0...f92592556492bf

What a mess...

Also popular in the news today... Dickey's :p

Holy crap, I didn't realize they hadn't done any work on it since 2015! I'm a bit worried about the rest of the projects now, if they can't handle a hangar, is this state going to be capable of getting a concourse and a rental car center built?

All the more reason to create a private airport authority to operate the States airports. Clearly, the State has failed at this spectacularly. HNL and the rest of Hawaii's airports are an embarrassment to our state, its people and the visitors that pass through these beleaguered facilities.

The private authority will basically be what is now the Airports Division, right?

I don't see how creating a separate bureaucracy fixes anything, even if it's a so-called independent one.

The source of their problems is their own incompetence to manage these projects from end to end. Just look at how they accepted the captive bonding company and then said that they were qualified. That is incompetence at just about every level. If what they said is true, then they failed miserably in writing the requirements and/or they failed miserably doing their due diligence just on that item alone, which is huge, because the bonding company is the entity that has to pay to complete the job when the contractor fails to do so.

So, please, by all means, tell me how making the Airports Division a separate entity is going to solve anything if it ends up being the same incompetent people running it?

If they are starting from scratch and actually can find competent non-political appointees to competently operate a private entity, fine, but that's not how things work here.

-David

And here's part 2 of the story: http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/0...3b3cb702b6b9ce

So HA took control of the hangar. They found at least 3500 deficiencies including significant cracks in the concrete flooring. New estimate of total cost including the fixes is $120 million. Hawaiian is "prepaying" the rent to finance the costs.

I would say the complete opposite.

The problem is primarily that the State used private contractors and a tender process for a project it should have just done itself.

I guess they want to move away from the State's procurement process, which might help speed up the slow pace of procurement.

But that doesn't solve the problem with project management, which they seem incapable of doing themselves in cases like the airport modernization program and the Hawaiian hanger project. That's the part that's not being addressed.

-David

And the drama continues....this time about the cancelled commuter terminal:

http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/0...fb05274d3a2491

If I was HA, I would fight tooth and nail to not give up the Makai Pier gates. Seems like Island Air and Mokulele had lofty goals that couldn't pan out without lots of money. Move them to the Central or Diamond Head Concourse. Or better yet, move them to the main terminal and do what AA did at LAX for American Eagle flights and build a bare bones commuter terminal and bus passengers from the main terminal to the commuter terminal. They can convert some of the hardstands next to the Diamond Head Concourse for this. That was where the original commuter terminal was going to be anyway.

Exactly. Whomever thinks that squeezing Island Air and Mokulele into the already crowded terminal 2 has their head in the sand and is a ridiculous solution. HA is ponying up MILLIONS of dollars to clean up the messes the State has created. Perhaps it's time for Island Air and Mokulele to do the same. They ought to help the state build something realistic at the Diamond Head hard stands, asap, vacate the commuter terminal and get this project done. In the end, a modernized HNL will benefit everyone.

Gotta agree with you (and HA) on that. It's hard to see how it makes sense to further squeeze HA's already-squeezed operation for the convenience of a marginal competitor or two.

Anyone know what the deal is with gate 51 in the Makai Pier? It doesn't look like it's been used in ages.

I'm guessing 51 is not used to facilitate multiple parking stands for the Ohana operation, which boards from gate 49.

50 is used for regular 717s though...

Huh, that's true. Another theory on the gate 51 closure is that I'm pretty certain that HA reconfigured the parking footprint when they started parking at the makai pier. The 717 and 737-200 share the same wingspan, but the 717 is longer. Also, the 737-700 has wider wings but is still shorter than the 717.

Regarding gate usage, I thought I saw an A330 parked at gate 54.

Now that the widening of the taxyways going/coming from the Interisland terminal is almost done, are we going to see the A330 parked there?

Gate 54 has been used in the past for 767 flights and since December (when KOA-HND started) the 330. Other than 54, I don't think there are any plans to use any other gates in T2 for the 330. If you notice, when a 767 is parked at T2 it's always at 57,59, or 61. The adjacent gate has to be closed to accommodate the wingspan. The 330 might just be too much wingspan for the other gates.

The way I read that, HA seems to be more concerned with fitting WP and MW into Lobby 2/3 than they were finding a place for them at the Makai Pier. If that's really the problem, then perhaps WP and MW could checkin at Lobby 5, while Alaska moves over to Lobby 6 to colocate with merger partner Virgin America.

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) -
The state's transportation department director is taking the blame for decades of deterioration at Hawaii's airports.

"To be honest with you, I've failed," said Ford Fuchigami.

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/3...ntain-airports

And then...

"Hawaiian Airlines CEO rips condition of state's airports"

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/3...tates-airports

Finally, the hangar is done!

http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/1...angar-defects/

I haven't heard anything about the commuter airline situation though, a solution to which will be needed before construction starts on the Mauka Concourse.

Finally! As for the commuter terminal... work has begun next to gate 6 for what will become the new commuter terminal. I'm not sure what form this will take, as the original plan was scrapped.

I'm very glad to hear this, as the other options discussed (moving commuter airlines to T2, T1, general aviation) were all awful.

Yes, it's very dirty, old and messing. It's time to renovation the entire terminal. It's been more than a decades.

Please have free wifi. Those passengers want to used a free wifi at Hawaii airports.

Free wifi at HNL is in the works. DOT signed a contract with Boingo, to replace Shakanet. The main thing holding them back right now is the current wireless infrastructure at HNL. It can handle a limited amount of paying users, but would get bogged down with the demand free wifi would induce. They are installing new antennas to fix this. Once done they should be able to flip the switch for free wifi.

Looks like the state has backed off on this a bit. Instead of completing it as a full terminal they're just going to build a shell that can be completed later. Apparently this space was only to be for Island Air, with Mokulele being moved away from the existing terminal to a site near the United cargo facility. Source: State scales back work on airport space | AviationPros.com

This wouldn't have been optimal for Mokulele as it would have made connections to long-haul flights more difficult. Now that things have changed with Island Air going bust, maybe Mokulele could take the space under gate 6?

Last I read, the article is accurate and describes the current plan. Mokulele will indeed move, the area under gate 6 will be built out to a shell and the Mauka concourse project will proceed. The newest info regarding the HNL modernization is HAL spending big bucks to remodel T2. No details at this point, however.