Hāna Airport: Hāmoa Airstrip to HNM

Interisland service reaches Hāmoa

Scheduled aviation service began at the Hāmoa field in May 1935. Governor’s Executive Order 646 formally set aside the land that June. The grass strip brought mail, passengers, and urgent travel within a short flight of central Maui, but its location south of town, limited dimensions, rain, and soft ground constrained operations.

By 1937, territorial aviation officials were already seeking a better site. Hāna’s experience echoed its maritime history: the district needed outside connections, but the physical conditions that made East Maui distinctive also complicated permanent infrastructure.

A new airport is planned, then war intervenes

Territorial officials submitted a federal grant application for a replacement airport in December 1940, but World War II delayed the civilian project. The existing Hāmoa field remained available as an emergency landing strip during the war.

That emergency status must not be inflated into a combat-base story. Unlike Puʻunēnē and Kahului, Hāmoa was not developed into one of Maui’s large naval air stations. Its wartime role was continuity and contingency for a remote community.

Residents press for the promised field

After the war, Act 153 of 1945 appropriated $150,000 for Hāna airport work. Delays continued, and in 1948 a petition signed by 376 residents urged the Territory to proceed.

Construction at the present coastal site began November 16, 1948, and the federal grant agreement was approved that December. The airport opened November 11, 1950. State aviation history records completion of runway paving on December 4 during the same construction period; the approximately 3,600-by-100-foot field created a much more durable connection than the first grass strip.