Kahului Airport upgrades will keep travelers moving

The Maui News
Wednesday, May 30, 2007

By HARRY EAGAR, Staff Writer

KAHULUI – The state Airports Division blessed $20 million of improvements at Kahului Airport Tuesday, although most of the spending won't be apparent to passengers.

Travelers will notice 24 new check-in stands in an extension of the passenger lobby, but not the automated baggage handling and inspection facility hidden behind the wall.

Nor will they notice the new emergency electricity generator.

When Maui Electric Co.'s system went down after the Oct. 15 earthquakes, Kahului Airport's backup generator worked (unlike the one at Honolulu International Airport), but it was too small to operate all systems.

The new 2-megawatt diesel stand-by generator should be sufficient to operate most circuits, if not every single light bulb, if a tsunami, hurricane or other disaster should knock out Maui's electrical grid.

Airports Division spokesman Scott Ishikawa said it will be adequate to keep passengers moving.

State Sen. J. Kalani English recalled that he was trapped in a plane for "four or five hours" in October. Not because the airlines couldn't process passengers manually – they could – but because the Transportation Security Administration couldn't do its processing manually.

Also, Ishikawa noted, jetways couldn't be moved without electric power.

Of more immediate benefit to the public, there are 24 CUSS (common use self-service) kiosks set up in an extension of the passenger lobby. United Airlines gets half, and Northwest Airlines and US Airways will share the rest.

But other airlines will be able to use the CUSS stations if they are not occupied. This offers increased efficiency and flexibility to the airport operators, according to Tony Thien, regional client manager for SITA.

SITA installed the CUSS kiosks, which look and operate much like an ATM. The passenger puts in a credit card or punches a confirmation code on the screen and gets back a boarding pass. If there is no luggage to be checked, no assistance from airline staff is necessary.

Eventually, all 108 check-in stands will be converted to CUSS kiosks.

Thien said airport operators used to lease counter space exclusively to airlines, but the trend now is to take advantage of CUSS to share counters.

Besides the software that allows different airlines to use the same kiosks, this requires a combined, automated baggage "make-up" area behind the scenes.

Passengers will notice that the bulky TSA X-ray machines are missing from the new section of the lobby. Eventually, as the older part of the lobby is rebuilt, the machines will disappear, leaving a wide-open lobby for just passengers and the Agriculture Department screening machines.

Behind the wall, two new million-dollar TSA X-ray machines will scan baggage as it rumbles by on conveyers that look something like a miniature Los Angeles freeway interchange.

Bar-code scanners are supposed to keep the bags headed for the correct airplanes.

Lori Peters, regional manager of corporate real estate for United Airlines, said "efficiency of space and systems" is the new game plan.

Airlines used to jealously guard their counters and make-up areas. Now they are learning the advantages of sharing.

United can use flexibility, because while it has five daily flights year-round at Kahului, in the summer that grows to nine.

The behind-the-scenes baggage inspection and handling system needs to be certified by both the state and TSA, which is not complete. It may be in operation around June 20.

Already in operation is a Starbucks Coffee in the baggage claim area. It opened Tuesday morning.

This is the first food concession, apart from a hot dog stand, that people greeting travelers have had available since the upstairs section of the terminal was closed to all but ticketed passengers in 2001.

Other changes include office space for the Department of Agriculture, more canopies to protect passengers coming into the terminal and more offices for the airport administration.

Participating in the dedication ceremonies at Kahului Tuesday, Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona said for arriving passengers, "the first impression of any destination is the airport." The upgrades to the Kahului terminal should provide more comfort to travelers, he said.

But not all of the issues have been resolved, noted Brian Sekiguchi, the state airports administrator.

"I have a year to get the parking situation fixed or I'll be fired," he joked.

More parking is part of the next phase of airport reconstruction. A new airport access road is also on the state plans for transportation improvements on Maui.

Harry Eagar can be reached at heagar@mauinews.com.

Copyright © 2005 The Maui News.

Original article URL: http://www.mauinews.com/story.aspx?id=30957

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