Passengers-only rule forces closures, layoffs Gone, at least until further notice, are the days of rushing into Lihu’e Airport to buy leis for friends, relatives and loved ones either arriving or departing. A lot of business for in-airport shops is
Passengers-only rule forces closures, layoffs
Gone, at least until further notice, are the days of rushing into Lihu’e Airport to buy leis for friends, relatives and loved ones either arriving or departing.
A lot of business for in-airport shops is gone, too.
Since the nation’s airports reopened with tighter security after the terrorist attacks on the East Coast last month, only ticketed passengers are allowed inside airport terminals, including Lihue’s.
The new policy has caused the Host Marriott Airport Restaurant snack bar to close, severely impacted business in the main cafeteria and bar, and slowed to a virtual standstill business at lei-sellers Tiare Enterprises and the airport newsstand, Heather’s News.
Tiare has cut manpower and hours of business, said Lani Angelo, branch manager.
“We’ve been really impacted by it,” she said of the passengers-only policy inside the terminal where Tiare is located. “It’s been really tough.”
It was decided, though, that if the local customers can’t come to them, they’ll have to go to the local customers.
“We’ve been trying to service the locals by running out (curbside) with our little cart with our leis on it,” Angelo said. “If somebody calls, we’re servicing them out there, coming back in here and ringing their sales up so we don’t lose them.
“Just tell me what kind of leis you want. You like thin leis, thick leis, fragrant leis or non-fragrant leis, and we run them out there. We take a variety. And we’ve been doing pretty good that way.”
Despite improvising, business has been “really slow,” especially right after the airport reopened and people were fearful of flying, Angelo related.
Heather Farmer of Heather’s News has laid off one employee she’d just hired, and cut back on the stock of magazines, children’s books and comic books she ordered to accommodate local demand.
The tighter security “hurt my business,” she said. “I’m in the magazine business.”
Some hotels that used to send people to buy magazines for guests are no longer showing up because they aren’t allowed beyond the security checkpoints, she explained.
Farmer said only recently have security officials allowed musicians back into the terminal to entertain visitors. Airport porters have seen their business drop, and lei greeters are no longer allowed to meet visitors at the gates, she said.
Even The Garden Island, except its circulation personnel who deliver newspapers to Heather’s News, is banned past the security checkpoint. It was nearly impossible for a news photographer to take pictures for this story.
The Federal Aviation Administration “has put all secured areas off-limits to the media, anything beyond the checkpoint, unless you are a ticketed passenger,” said Marilyn Kali, state Department of Transportation spokeswoman. “And even then you would not be allowed to photograph what’s in that area, due to security restrictions.
“This is an FAA requirement. It has not been lifted yet. I don’t know when that will happen.”
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
