If you live in Hawai’i and have visited other places or have visited before, you probably know that our airports are not great. However, in JD Powers’ most recent assessment, HNL improved its passenger satisfaction rankings, but not by much.
Honestly, I have a love-hate relationship with my hometown airport – the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, formerly known as the Honolulu International Airport. No matter what you call it, frequent travelers know it as HNL. And, well, it’s not a good airport. Its facilities are dated and dilapidated, though that’s been changing slowly over the years as all of the State of Hawaii’s airports work through an excruciatingly long revitalization project. However, the airport’s open-air walkways offer fantastic plane spotting vantage points.
At any rate, it seems as if that work is starting to pay off a little as HNL improved its passenger satisfaction ranking, though by only a couple of points.
HNL Improved Its Passenger Satisfaction Ranking
According the the JD Powers study, HNL is a “large airport,” grouping it with a diverse field of others such as Portland International Airport, San Jose International, Salt Lake City International, Dulles, Regan National, San Antonio International, and Oakland International, among others. Amongst this collection of airports, Honolulu came in second to last place over the last several years. However, last year HNL improved its passenger satisfaction ranking, increasing to fourth-to-last place, beating out St. Louis Lambert, Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and Philadelphia.
At any rate, HNL receive a score of 593 out of 1,000, while the top-rated airport in its class, John Wayne International, scored 687. But that’s not the full story. No, when we look at the largest mega group, which includes airports Minneapolis-Saint Paul, San Francisco International, John F. Kennedy International, Harry Reid Las Vegas international, and Dallas/Fort Worth, among others. Moreover, the average mega airport score is 595, just slightly higher than HNL’s, while larger airports have an average of 629, and medium airports have an average of 646.
Given the spread, that HNL improved its passenger satisfaction ranking means that it tied with Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International in Florida (FLL) and beat out the following airports:
- Boston Logan (BOS)
- Miami International (MIA)
- Denver International (DEN)
- Los Angeles International (LAX)
- George Bush Intercontinental (HOU)
- Charlotte-Douglas International (CLT)
- Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA)
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL)
- O’Hare International (ORD)
- Toronto Pearson International (YYZ)
- Newark Liberty International (EWR)
Company officials tell the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the criteria used to score each airport includes ease of travel through airport; level of trust with airport; terminal facilities; airport staff; departure/to airport experience; food, beverage and retail; and arrival/from airport experience. Given this criteria, I can see why HNL score so low. Its facilities are seriously lacking – even the new Mauka Concourse, which is nicer, but is a sterile, bland, space with some questionable design choices.
That said, while I agree with HNL beating out LAX, I don’t agree with SEA. I’ve really only been to D, N, and S concourses at SEA, but I think it’s an overall better airport, as it has much better facilities. Sure, traffic can be so much worse at SEA, but overall, I think it’s a nicer, more feature-filled airport.
Final Thoughts
I’ve got to be honest, I think a lot of better airports that fared worse than HNL is because they have awful traffic issues. In that regard, HNL really isn’t that bad. But, when you look at it from a facilities standpoint? Yeah, it’s pretty bad. At worse, it’s still a dated mess. At best? It’s a bland, uninspired facility. At any rate, what do you think? Do you chalk up the fact that HNL improved its passenger satisfaction ranking to the ongoing work? Think it’s not enough? Hate the airport regardless? Unironically love it? Let me know!
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