Don't know if the terminal actually locks up, but LGA does shut down to air traffic from after midnight until 5:30-6AM-ish - if your late flight happens to be late you get diverted; when my ORD-LGA flight was terribly late and on track to arrive around 1AM, it diverted to JFK.

Due to air-traffic delay from FLL to ORD, missed DCA connection - the last one for the night. Decided to tough it out at ORD overnight. Interesting night. I counted about 10 others doing the same thing. I stayed at the AC until they kicked me out, then walked H and K, staying up as much as possible until exhaustion rendered me indifferent to the massive cleaning effort that takes place, not to mention the numeous PA announcements.

HNL does shut down after the AC flights a little past midnight. The security guards (or TSA) will kick you out. However, you are welcomed to sleep on the benches near the curb (e.g., there's one between the inter-island terminal and the domestic one).

Any chance you could use Island Air scheduling to get out that same evening?

Ive done my share of overnight shifts at LGW and in the summer you would be amazed how busy it is. For example, immigration is busier at 2am than 2pm.
Fortunately some if the Costa Coffees stay open 24 hours. You can stay landside all night but most check ins dont open until between 4 and 5 am, this can lead to early morning security queues if all the desks open at the last minute. The North/South transit also runs every 6 minutes through the night.

I've never heard of a major airport in the US where at least the terminal building isn't open at night. And I assure you, HNL is open all night. Those desiring to sleep in the airport just need to be landside. Also, the police may stop by and ask to see a boarding pass or something indicating you're traveling just to prove you're in the airport legitimately.

The only good sized airport I've ever seen close down and kick even overnight travelers out is Perth, Australia.

Ah yes, I've found myself at an LGW Costa at 3am after a nearby wedding... Are the pubs still open all night? I used to know some dedicated drinkers who would head down to LGW for an all-night session. Quite why they couldn't just visit an off-licence or find a lock-in, I've no idea!

There are many facets to an "airport" that may "close" or otherwise restrict departures/arrivals -- pax terminals, ATC, runways, and even noise curfews.

I've had buddies of mine get kicked out of the landside area (near the ticketing counters) even after attempting to prove to the security guards that they were waiting for the first flights out on Aloha or Hawaiian and just wanted to some peace and quiet to rest.

9 out of 10 times, they kick them out and ask them to sleep out near the curb.

Yep -- our flight was the last one in awhile back -- arriving at 10:50 pm. Most of the airport was dark and empty and they were clearly waiting for us to pass thru so they could close down.

My husband is a private pilot. You CAN land there after 11 pm and trigger the runway lights to come on -- as long as your plane is reasonably quiet.The tower closes @ 11 pm and the airlines cannot land because of noise (the limit is 86 decibels or less).

We also found out that early flights slated for 6:30-7 a.m. departures do NOT leave on time. Flights can't leave till 7 a.m., so they line up for take off. NEXT time....I can sleep in a few more minutes

Yes, that's a busy little airport between 7Am and 7:30AM. Not only do they have about 14 departures (1 from each gate), there are a couple of arrivals in there as well.

I think the airlines schedule their departures before 7AM so they can push back and go to the front of the line way before 7AM. The latest I have taken off on a (nominally 7AM departure) is 7:25, so it is a very long line of planes waiting.

That is correct... a buddy of mine and I flew his little Piper Archer from Oak and were 15 mins behind and ended up having to land at FUL. We moved it to SNA first thing next morning... gotta love the Newport Jet Center

That happened to me in Feb on a NRT-LAX flight. Fortunately, the 747 I was on wasn't as dirty as the one you describe in a later post.

This is a common belief but in fact Heathrow is a 24 hour airport. There are a limited number of flights allowed during the "night hours" and the airlines prefer to use these slots after about 04.30 for long distance arrivals. You do sometimes see delayed flights arriving/departing in the small hours though. The ILS calibrator (a small turboprop) also operates at this time. Until a couple of years BMI operated a mail flight from Edinburgh that arrived around 01.00, but it has now been routed through Stansted.

I've been in Heathrow T1 at 01.00 from a delayed flight, there were plenty of others too, and the place was buzzing and many were sleeping in there overnight, public transport having stopped for the night. You can't throw people out under those circumstances.

Regarding the holding of the inbound Asian flights, the holding VOR, Lambourne, north-east of London, is visible from the back windows and garden of my own house, and indeed as I write this and it's a relatively clear morning I can see a couple going round. If I get up early I can see from the kitchen window how things are going with the early arrivers. The night slots finish at 06.00, so suddenly from about 05.50 onwards all the holding aircraft are drawn off and head across London. It's quite common for the first non-slot aircraft to touch down at Heathrow within 30 seconds after 06.00, with a solid line coming in behind at minute intervals. In fact it's one of the few times when both Heathrow runways are used for parallel landing movements.

Same for me, I was on the NRT-LAX flight last month. We arrived early like 7:30am local time and had to wait until 8 until customs and immigration could be called because they "arent open yet". People were like whaaat? I guess the lesson is, take a later night flight like 5 or 7pm out of Narita because the 4pm local time flight will get there before LAX opens for business.

The first flight out of SAN is 6:30am, and landing curfew is 11:30pm. You will findflights that say they depart SAN earlier, but there's a long queue of planes first thing in the morning. The earliest I've been in the terminal is 5am and it's bustling.

You can stay in DEN around the clock. I'm not sure when the latest flights out are, but flights leave as early as 6am.