If you fly through Honolulu, Lihue, or Kahului over the next year, some of the airport food is going to start looking a lot more appropriate, or at least familiar. Alan Wong, MW Restaurant, Koloa Rum Company, Maui Brewing and Ocean Organic Farm & Distillery are among the Hawaii names now attached to new airport restaurants, bars and grab-and-go concepts scheduled to open through the end of 2027.
Seeing those names on airport signs might give you the impression that a group of independent Hawaii businesses is moving into the terminals, but that’s not how this works. HMSHost, part of global travel-retail company Avolta, remains the long-term food and beverage concessionaire working with the state and will operate all of the new concepts through partnerships with the chefs and brands whose names travelers will soon see.
That puts a different frame around this week’s announcement. Hawaii airport food is getting a substantial refresh, but the company behind the counters is largely the same one travelers have been dealing with for years.
Local names are coming through a global airport operator.
HMSHost operates more than 1,000 food and beverage locations at nearly 80 North American airports. Its parent, Avolta, is far larger, with operations in more than 70 countries and over 5,000 retail and dining locations worldwide. The Avolta announcement itself describes HMSHost as HDOT’s existing partner, not any newly selected company arriving in Hawaii…