Over 200 out-of-state visitors came to Hawaii by air Tuesday
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / APRIL 22
An airport employee took a break amidst the empty baggage claim area at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority reported today that 216 out-of-state visitors came to Hawaii by air on Tuesday.
The number was higher than Saturday’s count, but slightly lower than Sunday and Monday. Visitor arrivals have waxed and waned since the quarantine started on March 26 for trans-Pacific passengers and was extended April 1 to interisland flights.
Altogether, 773 trans-Pacific passengers arrived Tuesday, including 286 residents. On the 15 flights that came, there also were 121 airline crew members, 71 transit passengers who are catching other flights and 65 intended new residents for Oahu and 14 for Kona. Some 201 visitors traveled to Oahu and 15 went to Kona.
With Tuesday’s count, HTA has classified 5,739 arriving passengers as visitors, at one time or another, since the quarantine began.
“We have been working with the counties and law enforcement statewide to develop better systems to enforce the mandate,” Gov. David Ige said today in an afternoon press conference.
HTA has reclassified some earlier visitors as intended residents after making follow-up calls.
HTA’s original daily tally showed that 4,638 visitors had come to Hawaii from March 26 to April 30. However, HTA said in a press release today that only 4,508 visitors came during that period.
The reclassification shows some of the challenges in managing a passenger quarantine. The state defines visitors as 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. The intended residents category might include military personnel, college students, people moving to Hawaii to live with their families, and homeless individuals.
HTA also reported today that out-of-state passengers totaled 23,302 between March 26 to April 30. In addition to visitors, the count during that period also included: 8,224 residents, 2,305 intended residents, 2,686 transit passengers and 5,579 airline crew members.
On the 806 flights that came during that period 19,882 passengers were bound for Oahu, 1,621 for Maui, 1,271 for Kona and 528 for Lihue.
Arriving passenger counts remain well below last year when most of the 30,000 or so passengers arriving daily were visitors. In April 2019, 856,250 visitors came to Hawaii.
