More than 100 visitors flew to Hawaii again on Thursday
The count of trans-Pacific passengers coming to Hawaii was greatly reduced Thursday, but about a third were visitors.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority reported today that 386 trans-Pacific passengers arrived on Thursday, including 110 visitors and 157 residents. The count also included 54 airline crew members, 20 transit passengers who are catching other flights and 44 intended new residents for Oahu and one for Kona.
Hawaii residents were the largest category comprising 41% of the total. Visitors include everyone with an out-of-state ID, who plans to leave Hawaii after a period of time. Intended residents are those with out-of-state IDs, who say they plan to stay here.
Visitor counts have greatly decreased since March 26, when Gov. David Ige instituted a 14-day mandatory self-quarantine for all arriving trans-Pacific passengers to cut travel demand and protect Hawaii’s resources due to COVID-19. He expanded the quarantine to interisland flights on April 1.
At this time last year, more than 30,000 passengers were arriving in Hawaii daily. In the 22 days since the quarantine began, some 2,872 visitors have arrived. That’s an average of nearly 130 passengers a day who are visitors.