Lihue Airport
Lihue Airport Kahua Mokulele o Līhuʻe | |||||||||||||||
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Runway 03/21 and the passenger terminal in background; fire station in foreground | |||||||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||||||
| Owner/Operator | Hawaii Department of Transportation | ||||||||||||||
| Serves | Kauaʻi | ||||||||||||||
| Location | Lihue, Hawaii | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 153 ft / 47 m | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 21°58′34″N 159°20′20″W / 21.97611°N 159.33889°W | ||||||||||||||
| Website | hawaii | ||||||||||||||
| Maps | |||||||||||||||
FAA airport diagram | |||||||||||||||
Interactive map of Lihue Airport | |||||||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||||||
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| Helipads | |||||||||||||||
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| Statistics (2024) | |||||||||||||||
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| Source: Federal Aviation Administration, | |||||||||||||||
Lihue Airport (IATA: LIH, ICAO: PHLI, FAA LID: LIH) is a state-owned public-use airport located in the Līhuʻe CDP on the southeast coast of the island of Kauaʻi in Kauaʻi County, Hawaii, United States, two nautical miles east of the center of the CDP.
The airport does not serve as a hub for any airline carrier. Numerous inter-island flights are available daily on Hawaiian Airlines and Southwest Airlines. Major US and Canadian airlines operate flights on narrow-body aircraft to major cities in western mainland North America.
The airport is mostly un-walled and open-air, and the check-in is completely outside. The airport is the primary gateway to Kauai for visitors (especially tourists), and has several rental car facilities. Five motion pictures have filmed scenes at the Lihue Airport: Blue Hawaii, Honeymoon in Vegas, Six Days Seven Nights, Soul Surfer, and The Descendants. In a deleted scene of the film Lilo & Stitch; Stitch, Nani, Jumba, and Pleakley hijacked a Boeing 747 jet from this airport, scraping against buildings through downtown Honolulu. After the September 11 attacks, with only a few weeks left in production, the climax was completely reworked to have them use Jumba's spacecraft, and through the Kauaʻi mountains.
It is included in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021, in which it is categorized as a small-hub primary commercial service facility.