Princeville Airport (HPV), located 2 miles east of Princeville, opened in 1977 as a quasi-public general aviation airport. In November 1983 Hurricane Iwa hit Kauai and caused millions of dollars in damage. Lihue Airport did not have the capacity to handle all the emergency flights and smaller planes landed at Princeville.
In 1994 the state entered into a lease agreement with the owner of Princeville Airport to add it as part of the State Airport System, but this was not to be and in 1999 the State dropped these plans. The last flights were by Makani Kai Air in 2019 and the airport shut down due to the pandemic.
The airport underwent repairs and repaving early 2022 in anticipation of reopening later in 2022.
Makai Kai Air was an FAA Part 135 scheduled air carrier based in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was a subsidiary of Schuman Aviation Company as well as Mokulele Airlines,
The airline offered regularly scheduled passenger service between Honolulu International Airport, Hoolehua Airport, Molokai, Kalaupapa Airport, Molokai, Kahului, Maui and Princeville Airport, Kauai. The scheduled service between Kalaupapa to Hoolehua Airport was among the shortest scheduled flights in the world.
Makani Kai Airbegan operations in 1998. It began regularly scheduled passenger service between Honolulu and Kalaupapa in 2009. In 2011, Makani Kai won the Essential Air Service contract for Kalaupapa and commenced service under the contract in January 2012.In June 2013, Makani Kai began regular daily service to “topside” Molokai at the Hoolehua Airport.On May 1, 2019, Makani Kai Air began twice-daily service between Honolulu International Airport and Princeville Airport on Kauai. On August 1, 2019, Makani Kai Air began air service between Kahului, Maui, and Kailua-Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii
On June 3, 2020, Makani Kai announced it would be merging with Mokulele Airlines, another commuter airline operating in Hawaii. No more details available at this stage.
I Heart Princeville recognizes the Hawaiian language and the use of the ‘okina and the kahakō. We have tried to use the correct Hawaiian language in as many places as possible but in some cases it was not used to improve the search functionality and help with online readability.
Information provided as a service to residents and visitors. No advertising is permitted or no revenue sharing is accepted. The site has been compiled and created by Stefan Swanepoel. Swanepoel is a Princeville resident and author of over 50 books and reports.
