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Airports: Where We Rank

Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons

A new national ranking of the best-run airports has good news for Maui, bad news for Honolulu. PBN editor-in-chief A. Kam Napier has more.

    

American City Business Journals, with help from its local publications like Pacific Business News, has put together rankings of 89 major airports across the country. One set of measures looks specifically at how well run they are AS businesses. That includes their operational efficiency, their growth in revenues over five years, their revenue per employee, and how much debt they carry. On this scale Kahului ranked 10th place in the country. Honolulu International ranked 68th. The difference is that Kahului operates at 100 percent operational efficiency, while Honolulu operates at 86 percent.

 

The other set of measures looks at how modern and convenient the airports are for travelers. Factors include parking rates, access to public transportation, number of carriers, whether or not ride sharing is permitted, the availability of Wi-Fi and more. On this report card, Honolulu International earned a D-. Why? No ride sharing, no Wi-Fi, no rail or subway access, comparatively few dining and shopping options for the number of carriers the airport supports, and moderate wait times of almost 16 minutes, on average, to get through TSA.

 

Frequent fliers may be interested to know that the airport with the fastest TSA lines is the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, in DC. Wait times there average just under 3 minutes. At Dulles International, also in DC, wait times are among the longest, at 33 minutes on average.

A. Kam Napier is the editor-in-chief of Pacific Business News.
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