Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke announced Thursday that the state plans to expand the Akamai Arrival program to additional flights throughout the year, allowing more travelers entering Hawaii to complete a digitized version of the Department of Agriculture’s Plants and Animals Declaration Form.
Luke said during a media conference at the state Capitol that the pilot phase of the program ended with an average 74% compliance rate, compared with under 60% for the previous, paper-only system.
She said the Akamai Arrival initiative is a key component of the state’s broader effort to modernize government services, protect local agriculture and improve the travel experience for both visitors and returning residents.
Sharon Hurd, Department of Agriculture chair, said the new program is a vital part of Hawaii’s biosecurity system.
“Biosecurity is critical to protecting our local agriculture, environment and way of life,” Hurd said. “By moving to a digital platform, we can more effectively identify potential threats and respond quickly to protect Hawaii from invasive species.”
The pilot, which launched March 1 and ends May 31, was implemented on 30% of incoming flights across more than 100 routes. The program has increased the number of travelers who are filling out the mandatory agricultural form before entering Hawaii; however, it drew criticism from those who relied on the data provided by the form’s optional tourism questions, which were eliminated during the pilot.
Jennifer Chun, director of tourism research for the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, said the pilot initially eliminated access to tourism data from arriving Southwest flights, all American flights, five Alaska flights, one Delta flight, two Hawaiian flights and two United flights.
DBEDT Director James Kunane Tokioka said in an email that DBEDT is now receiving data from the Akamai Arrival Program, so “all the data are comparable to the past and the comparisons are valid.”
Tokioka said DBEDT’s Research and Economic Analysis Division restored the international passenger counts as of May 1, and on May 5 resumed the reporting of domestic data, albeit with a one-week delay.
“DBEDT is in the process of finalizing the (memorandum of understanding) with the Department of Agriculture. The passenger data from DOA is consistent with the data that DBEDT has collected in the past, ” he said, adding that there is a request for quotes to create a digital tourism survey with a target to start in June.
Luke did not specify a timeline to convert all flights to the digitized form, but Tokioka said DBEDT is planning for the future when the Plants and Animals Declaration Form becomes 100% digital.
Once that occurs, he said, “DBEDT has two options to collect the domestic visitor data: one, switch domestic visitor data collection to an airport departure survey; two, digitize the tourism survey form.”
Tokioka said DBEDT is planning a pilot program to test the effectiveness of the two methods.
The initiative was authorized under Act 196 and has been touted by state leaders including Gov. Josh Green, Luke and Sen. Glenn Wakai (D, Kalihi-Salt Lake-Pearl Harbor) as a significant step toward modernizing Hawaii’s biosecurity efforts.
Wakai, who chairs the Senate Committee on Energy and Intergovernmental Affairs, said he started advocating for a digital agricultural form five years ago and initially was met with resistance, until 2024 when lawmakers passed a law encouraging the migration from paper to an app.
He said ending the in-flight paper agricultural form would save at least $800,000 annually, but more important, digitization increases completion rates and strengthens protections against invasive species. Passengers typically would complete the digitized form in advance of boarding their flight.
Luke said the Akamai Arrival platform was developed using internal resources, with no additional cost to taxpayers.
She said the digital form, which is accessible up to five days before departure, is available in six languages, and as the program expands, more languages will be added to accommodate non-English-speaking travelers.
For updates and more information, visit akamaiarrival.org.
