For the second time this year, the Ellison Onizuka International Airport at Keahole had an unscheduled closure. And like the last time, it was due to runway cracking. Again. So, I don’t know. Maybe avoid Kona Airport if you can?
Technically, last Friday’s emergency closure was the third at Kona Airport this year. The first was due to cracks forming in the runway. However, the second was due to a contractor screwup while doing preventative maintenance work in response to the racking a month later. If you’re keeping tabs, that’s nearly one emergency closure per month this year! How embarrassing is that?
Maybe Avoid Kona Airport If You Can
Thanks to the inability of the State of Hawaii to maintain operations at Hawaii’s third busiest airport – following Honolulu and Kahului – and only one of two that hosts flights to destinations outside of North America, I’m recommending people avoid Kona Airport if you can to minimize the chances that you’ll run into major headaches.
In this latest incident, new cracks in the runway triggered the closure of Kona Airport’s only runway on Friday, April 12, forcing the airport to close entirely. The new crack formed between Runways G and H, which places it smack dab in the middle of the runway. That means, also like last time, it wasn’t possible to keep enough of the runway open to continue operations.
Luckily, as officials promised, the airport reopened by noon, and flights resumed not long thereafter. However, the fallout was still not fun. Nine flights were canceled, while a whopping 48 were delayed. The vast majority of cancellations were with Hawaiian (5), primarily due to the volume of flights they operate to and from Kona. Southwest followed with two cancellations, while United and Alaska had to cancel one each.
Naturally, Hawaiian led in delays as well, with 25 of its flights departing or arriving late, followed by Southwest with six, Alaska with 5, and Mokulele with three. American, Delta, and United were all forced to delay two flights each, while Air Canada delayed a single flight.
So, yeah. Do you want to chance potentially getting stranded if this happens again?
Other Options
Of course, I’d recommend that you avoid Kona Airport if you can, primarily by flying into Hilo International Airport. However, there are no trans-Pacific flights to Hilo, so if you’re traveling from out-of-state, you’ll need to connect in Honolulu via Hawaiian or Southwest. That’s pretty inconvenient, even more so if you’re flying an airline that doesn’t have a codeshare (or at least an interline) agreement with Hawaiian. Further, it’s not a guarantee that you won’t encounter headaches, either, thanks to Hawaiian’s overall track record nowadays, or issues with your originating flight. But, of course, if you don’t fly on an airline with one of the aforementioned agreements, you can always fly Southwest. And, of course, it also means driving 1.5 hours from Hilo to Kona.
If you don’t want to go through all of that, you could still fly into and out of Kona, but based on how these incidents have played out if you can time your arrival or departure in the mid-afternoon or later, you’ll be less likely to face a cancelation.
Maybe Avoid Kona Airport If You Can, Final Thoughts
I sincerely hope the State of Hawaii can get its act together. While these issues are not great for the tourism industry, it’s absolutely awful for locals who travel, not only for vacations of their own but for work, to visit family, doctor appointments, and more. The only saving grace I can see is that the risk of more cracks forming will decrease once we enter summer, as officials blamed rain for all instances of cracking. However, for those traveling before the start of summer, if you see rain in the forecast for Kona, especially heavier rain, you might want to make backup plans.