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Hawaii air arrivals top 4,000 since start of passenger quarantine

More than 4,000 visitors have come to Hawaii since the state’s 14-day mandatory quarantine for arriving passengers took effect a little over a month ago.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority reported today that 475 trans-Pacific passengers arrived on Sunday, including 118 visitors and 193 residents. The count also included 89 airline crew members, 44 transit passengers who are catching other flights and 29 intended new residents for Oahu and two for Kona.

All but 10 of the visitors came to Oahu. Lihue did not get any visitors on Sunday, while Maui had 8 and Kona had two.

Hawaii residents were the largest category comprising 41% of the total. Visitors, which made up 25% of the traffic, included everyone with an out-of-state ID who plans to leave Hawaii after a period of time. Intended residents are those with out-of-state IDs who say they plan to stay here. The intended residents category might include military personnel, college students, people moving to Hawaii to live with their families, and homeless individuals.

On March 26, Hawaii became the country’s first state to implement a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine order for incoming travelers, which was extended to interisland travelers on April 1.

The quarantine collapsed tourism to the point that since its March start only 4,015 visitors, which represent a mix of leisure and essential travelers, have come into the state. In the 32 days since the quarantine began, visitors by air have averaged about 125 a day.

In April 2019, 856,250 visitors came to Hawaii.

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