Hwaiian Air - is 2 hour time for interisland flights accurate?
 

Hawaiian Air recommends you be at the airport 2 hours in advance for interisland flights. Has anyone who has recently taken these flights have any comments on whether that amount of time is really necessary?

Both the ticket and the security lines are pretty bad, but 90 minutes has seemed to be enough for interisland recently.

Keep in mind that they will not let you jump to the head of the line just because you are running late. Traffic to the airport can get stopped up, so allow for that as well.

Also, seating is first come, first served, so many people like to get out to the gate early for the window seats.

We were on vacation - 4 islands - last month... so we definitly got the interisland flight experience. All our flights were on Aloha Air. Twice we got there approx. 25-30 min. in advance... and both times we were the very LAST ones on the plane and only made it by the skin of our teeth (in one instance, in Lihue, they told us to RUN to the gate). 60 min. seemed to be more than adequate, but 90 min. would give you that extra security in case you get in a random security search like we did (that was out of Hilo when we got there 30 min. in advance... we were sweating it, and security went as slow as molasses!).

What we did to be efficient (since we obviously weren't very good about getting there early) was to have my husband return the rental car each time, while the kids and I carried the baggage to the check in line. By the time my husband returned, we were just getting up to the front of the line.

2 hours is definitely more than you need but don't cut the time as short as you would here on the Mainland. Often security takes longer, things are less organized so plam accordingly. They usually close boarding a full half hour before takeoff.

From my limited experience, Maui's airport you did need at least 60 minutes - that place is a zoo! Kona and Hilo were so quiet and easy in comparision. Even Honoulu seemed much smoother and organized than Maui.

Thanks for the info - we will be flying from HNL to Hilo, and then to Maui before returning home, so will have 3 interisland flights. Hoping not to spend too much time in airports!

Hilo airport is wonderful, but KOA can be a zoo too, depending on the time of day. Check-in lines for United are sometimes out to the sidewalk (1.5-2 hours).

I remember waiting for a ridiculous amount of time in Honolulu for a trip to Maui. I guess you can never tell what the lines will be like, but they were short when we were there and we just sat and sat and sat.