Hawaii DOT officials announced yesterday that they’re going to begin runway maintenance work today. Unfortunately, due to this work, they’re saying to expect inter-island flight delays at HNL. Officials are also warning that surrounding neighborhoods may experience elevated aircraft noise levels.
Of all Hawaii’s airports, Ellison Onizuka International Airport at Keahole in Kona has received the most attention lately, and for good reason – it’s in awful shape and has caused people to get stranded on Hawai’i Island. However, Hawaii’s main airport needs TLC, too, and that, unfortunately, is going to cause disruptions. Thankfully, these disruptions won’t be as bad as the Runway 8L work last year, but still, you need to expect inter-island flight delays at HNL. Well, for certain flights – not all.
Expect Inter-Island Flight Delays at HNL
So why are officials warning to expect inter-island flight delays at HNL. It’s because they’re going to be temporarily closing runway 4R/22L for runway shoulder repaving and drainage repair work. According to officials, the work is needed to remain complaint with FAA regulations. Work will begin on May 1, 2024, and is scheduled to last through June 7, 2024. Of course, these activities are weather-dependent – and our weather has been very iffy lately – so the closure period may be extended.
If you’re familiar with HNL, you’ll know that Runway 4R/22L is one of three runways at the airport. However, of those three, 8R/26L is typically used solely for departures, though it sees arrival activity during Kona weather. That means arrival capacity is actually being cut in half during the work period. Naturally, that’s going to cause disruptions.
Logically speaking, not all flights are created equal. Intra-Hawaii flights to and from HNL range in time from 30 to 45 minutes, while all flights originating outside of Hawaii have a minimum flight time of around five hours. As such, officials will be prioritizing out-of-state flights over those operating within Hawaii. This will result in delays for inter-island flights arriving in Honolulu, specifically during the airport’s peak arrival hours from mid-morning to early afternoon.
Final Thoughts
While I’d like to tell you that you can heed Hawaii DOT warnings to expect inter-island flight delays by booking flights outside of the impacted timeframe, that’s only partially true. Yes, early morning flights won’t run into delays triggered by the runway closure. However, there’s no guarantee that the same will be true for afternoon flights – especially for Hawaiian. You see, the airline runs fairly tight turns in its inter-island schedule, meaning there’s little room for for recovery when things go wrong. So if Hawaiian isn’t proactively padding their schedule more than usual during the work period, there’s good chance you’ll see delays when flying inter-island with them later in the day.
Now, I’m not trying to pick on Hawaiian here, but Southwest doesn’t have the same operational tempo as them in Hawaii. Their aircraft typically spends an hour or more on the ground between inter-island flights, so they have more capacity to recover from delays. Hawaiian, on the other hand, has as little as 30 minutes between inter-island flights, which sometimes isn’t even enough to offload and load. As such, if you really, really, need to arrive on-time during the work period, it may be better for you to fly Southwest. Of course, doing so is no guarantee that you’ll arrive on-time, but, statistically speaking, your odds will be better.
The more prudent thing to do, though, is to just expect inter-island flight delays at HNL. I just question why this work is happening during the busy Memorial Day weekend? But, this is Hawaii, so this doesn’t surprise me at all.