Getting from Daniel K. Inouye International Airport to the city

The train that is new

• The second segment of Skyline opened on 16 October 2025 and it includes a station at the airport. Honolulu spent decades without an airport rail link and most printed advice has not caught up.
• Lelepaua Station sits on the mauka side of Terminal 2, between the International Parking Garage and the Terminal 2 Parking Garage.
• Entrances: ground level, the 4th floor of the International Parking Garage, and the 4th floor of the Terminal 2 Parking Garage, connected by a pedestrian walkway on the makai side.
• Signage and marked pathways guide you between the station and the terminals.
• There are dedicated luggage racks on the trains, which tells you the airport connection was designed in rather than bolted on.

Hours and paying

• 04:00 to 22:00 every day for the start of the last full trip. Trains every 10 minutes until 20:30, then every 15 until 22:30.
• Some later trips run but do not cover the whole route.
• You must have a HOLO card to ride Skyline. Cash works on TheBus but not on the train. Adult HOLO cards are sold at the ticket vending machine at Lelepaua Station.
• Transfers between Skyline and TheBus are free for two hours from your first paid tap - with a HOLO card. Pay cash on a bus and you get no transfer.

Waikiki: still the bus

• Skyline does not yet reach Waikiki. For that the direct service is the W Line bus.
• W Line route: airport, Downtown Honolulu via Nimitz Highway, Kakaako, Ala Moana Shopping Center, and ends in Waikiki. Westbound it runs the same way in reverse.
• Weekdays: every 10 minutes at peak, every 15 off peak, every 30 after 19:00. Weekends and holidays: every 15 minutes, every 30 after 19:00.
• The stop is east of the lei stands on Ala Onaona Street, in front of Lelepaua Station. All the old stops on the second level roadway were removed when Skyline opened.

Late at night

• Route 42 runs only after 22:30. Westbound it goes to Ewa Beach; eastbound to Waikiki, but only one trip a day.
• After the W Line and Skyline finish, that is thin cover. A late arrival should plan for a taxi or a rideshare.
• Rideshare pickup moved to the first floor when Skyline opened: Terminal 1 curbside mauka of Baggage Claim 6, and Terminal 2 on the ground-level median across from Baggage Claims 19/20 and 31.

Getting around the airport itself

• The free Wiki Wiki Shuttle moves passengers between the terminals and gates, and electric trams have been added to it.
• The rental car centre has its own shuttle, now running battery electric buses.
• HNL is the gateway to the whole state. Inter-island flights to Maui, Kauai and the Big Island leave from here, and the connection is a walk plus a shuttle rather than a transfer inside one building.