Airports in Maui
Names, Locations, Codes, Comparisons, of the airports in Maui, Hawaii
Which Maui airport will you arrive at? Do you have a choice? Where is the Maui airport? How far is the Maui airport from your hotel or condo? Here’s what you need to know about the three airports on the island of Maui.
OGG Airport Kahului is by far the largest Maui airport. It is the only airport you can use to fly between Maui and the mainland (the other 49 states of the U.S.) or to or from any other country. So this is the airport that you must fly into if you fly directly to Maui from anyplace outside of the Hawaiian islands. The airport code letters for this main airport in Kahului, Maui, are OGG. (Those initials honor a pilot named Bertram J. Hogg, who pioneered commercial passenger flights between the Hawaiian islands.)
Full-size jet planes fly to Kahului from other U.S. states and other countries, but no jumbo jets (no 747s or similar) can fly in or out of this airport. Kahului Airport is in Kahului, the largest city on Maui. It is about a 45-minute drive from this airport to the main resort hotel and condo areas of Kaanapali, Lahaina, Kihei, and Wailea (a little shorter or longer depending on exactly where your hotel is located in those resort areas). See photos below, or click the blue link at the beginning of this paragraph for more details and photos about OGG Kahului Airport Maui. OGG is also the home to where Fly Maui Flight School operates from.
Kapalua Airport JHM West Maui is a small Maui airport just north of Lahaina and Kaanapali, on the west side of Maui. Contrary to its name, it is not in Kapalua but is a few miles south of Kapalua. It only accepts propeller planes (no jets) and does not have any flights in or out after dark. The code letters for this airport are JHM. (Those initials stand for John Henry Magoon, a pilot who was the president of Hawaiian Airlines when the Kapalua airport opened.)
You can only fly between the Kapalua airport and the island of Oahu (Honolulu) or the Big Island of Hawaii, or sometimes the island of Lanai. You can’t fly to this airport from any place outside of the state of Hawaii. If you are stopping in Honolulu on your way to Maui, and if your hotel or condo is on the west side of Maui, then you can fly into the Kapalua Airport from Honolulu, and be much closer to your hotel or condo (5 to 15 minutes away), than if you had flown into the Kahului Airport.
The two main airlines flying between Honolulu and Kapalua, or the Big Island of Hawaii and Kapalua, are Ohana (by Hawaiian) and Mokulele. The Ohana by Hawaiian planes are 48-passenger 2-propeller ATR’s. The Mokulele planes are smaller 1-propeller Cessna aircraft. Click the blue link at the beginning of this paragraph for more details and photos about JHM West Maui Kapalua Airport, including an aerial video of the approach and landing at this airport.
Hana Airport is a tiny Maui airport on the east side of the island of Maui, three miles from the little town of Hana. Only small single-engine propeller planes fly in or out of this airport. The airport code letters are HNM, which stands for Hana Maui. Mokulele is a small airline that flies a few flights in and out of Hana on small propeller aircraft. You can only fly to Hana from the main Maui airport in Kahului, or sometimes from Honolulu.
Kaanapali Airport (HKP) used to be a small airstrip from 1961 to 1986 in an area now called Kahekili Beach Park or Airport Beach.
For information on flights between one Hawaiian island and another, click on Hawaii Island Hopping on inter-Island flights.
For information about car rentals at any of the Maui airports, click on Maui Car Rentals.
