A letter from Governor David Ige regarding travel updates for the Hawaiian Islands and Trans-Pacific Travelers:
Aloha,
On Tuesday, June 16, Hawaiʻi will lift the 14-day quarantine for inter-island travel. We encourage residents to safely reunite with family and friends on neighbor islands and help support our kamaʻāina economy.
New Procedures for Inter-Island Travel
Flying between islands will be a different experience. New travel procedures include:
- Thermal screening prior to departure. Anyone with a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher will not be allowed to board the plane.
- A new, mandatory travel form that can be completed before arriving at the airport will provide health screening and contact tracing information.
- Arrive early. As we implement these new processes, we ask for patience from inter-island travelers. We recommend arriving early and anticipating additional wait times.
We can open up inter-island travel because of low COVID-19 levels across all islands. We must all continue safe practices to ensure we don’t experience a surge that overwhelms our healthcare capacity.
Plans Underway for Re-Opening Trans-Pacific Travel
We continue to finalize plans to re-open trans-Pacific travel to our state. Our plan will take a multi-layered approach to protect our health and safety. Elements we are reviewing include:
- Screening to include a form similar to inter-island travel and new thermal imaging cameras at all state airports so we can identify if someone in the airport has a fever-grade temperature.
- Testing prior to arrival in Hawaiʻi.
- Travel corridors to markets with low COVID-19 case levels, including Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia and potential mainland markets.
- Contact tracing. We will have 320 new tracers trained by the end of July, which exceeds CDC guidelines.
- Guidelines for the visitor industry in anticipation of welcoming visitors back to Hawaiʻi.
Until these measures can be finalized and put in place, I have extended the mandatory 14-day quarantine for out-of-state travelers through July 31. I anticipate finalizing our plans soon and will make an announcement in the near future.
With warmest regards,