The outage occurred this morning after crews conducted a monthly test of emergency generators at the airport. When bringing the power back online, DOT officials said, not all of the power was restored, with outages affecting the Interisland Terminal.

The Inter-Island Terminal Parking Structure at Honolulu International Airport will undergo an intermittent closure for about three weeks for steam cleaning maintenance. Authorities also say cleaning work is scheduled during a historically slow period in the travel season.

The realistic exercise, conducted as a certification requirement by the Federal Aviation Administration, tests airfield disaster preparedness and response by simulating the crash of a commercial airliner.

The grants are being used to rehabilitate runway pavement, repair lighting and improve terminal buildings at the Honolulu International Airport, the Kona International Airport at Keahole, and the Lihue Airport on Kaua’i.

The Hawai’i Tourism Authority (HTA) welcomed the first regularly-scheduled direct flight from Shanghai, China to Hawai’i at 9:50 a.m. this morning in Honolulu.

Maui-based Pacific Biodiesel has entered into a three-year contract with Hawaiian Electric Company to supply at least 250,000 gallons of locally produced biodiesel to the new 8-megawatt (MW) Honolulu International Airport Emergency Power Facility.

Although Maui and the other neighbor islands were not included in today’s job restoration announcement, the reinstated jobs on O’ahu are expected to provide increased inspection of cargo moving between the islands.

Hawaiian Airlines reconfirmed that it will not be reducing service to Japan and is still planning to start an Osaka service in July. Executives predict a bookings recovery by May.

Verizon Wireless announced yesterday that it is bringing its high speed 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network to four Hawaii cities in 2011.

In a race to ready the Honolulu International Airport for worldwide attention during the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Week in November 2011, the State today announced three improvement projects valued at an estimated $2 million.