File:Phone Booths, Diamond Head Concourse Terminal 2, Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, Honolulu, HI 2022.jpg

English: Opened in 1927 as the John Rodgers Airport, named for a World War I naval officer, this was the first full-size airport to open in Hawaii, and was massively expanded between 1939 and 1943 as the adjacent Keehi Lagoon was dredged for the use of seaplanes that were also popular at the time. During World War II, the airport was commandeered by the United States Navy and was converted into Naval Air Station Honolulu, remaining closed to most civilian air travel until 1946, when it was returned to the Territory of Hawaii, having grown into one of the largest airports in the United States by this time, with four paved runways, three seaplane runways, a terminal building, and a control tower. In 1947, the airport became known as Honolulu Airport, becoming Honolulu International Airport in 1951, owing to many transpacific flights having layovers at the airport, and being one of the busiest airports in the United States during the early 1950s, as well as having the longest runway in the country in 1953 at 13,097 feet long. Jet service began in 1959 with Qantas using the airport for layovers on its service between Australia and California. In 1962, the World War II-era terminal built by the Navy was replaced by the John Rodgers Terminal, which was expanded and modernized under the direction of architect Vladimir Ossipoff between 1970 and 1980 into the current complex of modernist buildings that still serve most travelers today. The Diamond Head Concourse was the first section to open in 1970, followed by the Ewa Concourse in 1972, and the renovated and expanded Central Concourse in 1980. The complex presently still maintains most of the work of Vladimir Ossipoff, with the iconic Cultural Garden and the tall Administration Building being the two most notable elements remaining from the 1962 terminal. The airport is presently slated to undergo a major renovation and expansion, which will see the Diamond Head and Ewa Concourses designed by Ossipoff in the 1970s replaced by more contemporary structures, and the Central Concourse massively renovated, as well as major alterations to Terminal 2’s landside sections. This first phase of this project involved an expansion of Terminal 1, opened in 1993, with the addition of the new Mauka Concourse, completed in 2021. An additional change on the horizon will be the completion of the Honolulu Rail Transit System to the airport, slated to occur sometime in the next decade.