Every Sunday, "Back in the Day" looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.
Consultants today called for more than $79 million worth of improvements and runway construction for Honolulu Airport to ready it for the age of jumbo jets.
The airport master plan, prepared by Leigh Fisher Associates, envisions extensive improvements to the existing terminal facilities.
The present international and inter-Island terminals would be developed into satellite terminals containing large "courts" — space which would be used for service facilities.
The terminal improvements would bring passenger and cargo vehicles directly to the loading gates serving the jumbo and supersonic jets coming in the next few years.
The plan calls for the early lengthening of Runway Four and the construction of a parallel 12,000-foot jet runway 1,300 feet seaward of the present main runway.
Total cost of the terminal and runway improvements, with new access roads serving them, is expected to be well in excess of $100 million.
The initial stage of development, intended to prepare Honolulu Airport for anticipated 1975 traffic volumes, would cost $51 million, not including the cost of access roads.
Early improvements would include the construction of a central concourse extending seaward of the present main terminal building.
A "ride" system — "wiki wiki" style buses for passengers — would circulate in the main terminal area. … The entire terminal complex would cover some 367 acres.
The airport access road would be moved about half a mile toward downtown from its present entry point. This would give drivers more time to decide the route they want to follow through the complex.
The access road is envisioned as an eight-lane divided highway, curling off the new H-1 defense highway, now being planned. … The new terminal complex would have 55 acres of mult-deck parking space. …
The plan still must go before an airport planning task force for review.
The consultants envisioned a rapid buildup of operations at Honolulu Airport and said a new jet runway will be needed by 1970. Present peak capacity of the airport is 82 aircraft movements an hour, they said, and aircraft movements are expected to total 89 an hour in peak periods by 1970.
