Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields:
Hawaii, Hawaii island
© 2001, © 2006 by Paul Freeman. Revised 4/9/06.
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Original Kona Airport, Kailua, HI
19.64 North / 156.01 West (Island of Hawaii, Southeast of Honolulu, HI)
The original Kona Airport, as depicted on the October 1954 Hawaiian Islands Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
Photo of the airport while open has not been located.
This was originally the municipal airport for the town of Kona.
According to Kona resident Laura Dierenfield,
the property was purchased by the State of Hawaii & developed into the Kona Airport in 1948.
The October 1954 Hawaiian Islands Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy)
depicted Kona Airport as having a single 3,800' asphalt Runway 11/29.
Kona was listed among active airports in the 1962 AOPA Airport Directory,
with a 3,800' paved runway, and the operator listed as "Hawaii Aeronautics Commission".
No airfield at this location was depicted on the 1967 USGS topo map.
Was it overlooked by the mapmakers,
or had the airport already closed by that point?
According to Laura Dierenfield,
the original Kona Airport closed in 1970,
when the larger Kona International Airport was built in Keahole to the north.
Greg Myers recalled, “It was then used for legitimate drag racing for a few years (and bootleg nighttime racing).
I remember attending a race there.
That lasted until the county built the new million-dollar dragstrip near the Hilo Dump in the mid-1970's.
It then became a county park.”
The abandoned Kona Airport became a State/County park in 1976.
The old terminal building is now a large public pavilion for gatherings
and what were possibly the former hangars now serve as facilities for the local DMV.
The runway pavement also still exists.
A local group is trying to further improve the park facilities at the site.
The runway of the original Kona Airport was still depicted on the 1996 USGS topo map,
with the property being labeled the "Old Kona Airport State Recreation Area".
The original Kona Airport is still depicted as an abandoned airfield on recent aeronautical charts.
A recent (pre-2005) USGS aerial photo showed that the runway remained completely intact,
as well as the former airport terminal building & hangars.
Bob Murphy reported in 2004, "It is still used as an airport of sorts...
A local radio-controlled model airplane club uses the field as a runway on Thursday & Sunday mornings."
A 2006 photo by Eric Helms. Eric reported, “The hangar is about 75 yards east of the old terminal building.
'Hawaiian Wings' is still written on the hangar front.”
A 2006 photo by Eric Helms, looking northwest down the former Kona runway.
Eric reported, “This area is now a state park (nice park by the way) open sunrise to sunset.
Yellow X's are painted on either end of the old runway.”
A 2006 photo by Eric Helms of the west side of the former Kona Airport terminal building.
Eric reported, “The state has maintained the building & it may be rented out as a meeting place.”
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