Skyline stops at the airport now. Since October 16, 2025, you can walk off a flight at Daniel K. Inouye International and roll your suitcase across a covered walkway. Tap a card, and you are on a driverless train a few minutes later.
Plenty of visitors still have no idea it exists. We watch folks bake in the rideshare scrum outside Terminal 2 while a train glides past right over their heads.
So let’s clear it up. This guide covers what a ride costs, how the HOLO card works, when the trains run, and how to find the station inside the airport.
It also covers the part that trips people up most. The rail does not go to Waikīkī yet, and there is a very easy fix for that.
Related: Getting Around Oʻahu, Aloha Stadium Swap Meet Guide, and Pearl Harbor Visitor Guide.
Where Skyline Runs Right Now
Skyline is Honolulu’s elevated rail line. Today it runs 16.1 miles (25.9 km) between Kualakaʻi in East Kapolei and Kahauiki at the Kalihi Transit Center on Middle Street. That is 13 stations, every one of them above the traffic.
The trains have no driver. There is no cab up front, just a big window. That makes the front seat of the lead car the best seat on Oʻahu for the price of a bus fare. Keiki figure this out in about nine seconds.
The first nine stations opened in June 2023 and ran from Kapolei to Aloha Stadium. The four newest opened on October 16, 2025 and pushed the line past Pearl Harbor, the airport, and Lagoon Drive to Kalihi.
Ridership has climbed ever since. On August 26, 2026 the city counted 14,143 rides in one day, a record.
The line still ends at Middle Street. Downtown, Chinatown, Kakaʻako, and Waikīkī are all bus connections for now. We cover the downtown extension near the bottom, because it changes the map in 2031.
Here are the stations from west to east, with the place each one serves. The west end runs Kualakaʻi (East Kapolei), Keoneʻae (UH West Oʻahu), Honouliuli (Hoʻopili), Hōʻaeʻae (West Loch), and Pouhala (Waipahu Transit Center).
The middle runs Hālaulani (Leeward Community College), Waiawa (Pearl Highlands), Kalauao (Pearlridge), and Hālawa (Aloha Stadium).
The newer east end runs Makalapa (Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam), Lelepaua (the airport), Āhua (Lagoon Drive), and Kahauiki (Kalihi Transit Center).
The Hawaiian names are the official ones on every sign and announcement, so learn the two or three you need. Lelepaua is the airport. Hālawa is the stadium and the swap meet. Kahauiki is the end of the line where the buses wait.
Fares and the HOLO Card
Let’s talk money first, because this is the part that stalls people at the gate. You cannot pay cash on Skyline. There is no paper ticket, no phone tap, and no credit card reader on the turnstile.
You need a plastic HOLO card. The good news is the machines that sell them stand right at the station entrance.
The card itself costs $2, and then you load value onto it. Every tap at a fare gate charges an adult $3, and that $3 buys a 2-Hour Pass. Any bus or train you board in the next two hours rides free.
Tap at the airport, ride to Pearl Harbor, hop a bus to the memorial, and you have paid once.
There is also a daily cap. Once you spend $7.50 in one day, every ride after that is free until midnight. A family doing three or four hops never pays more than $7.50 a person, and you do not have to plan for it. It just happens on the card.
Staying a while and planning to ride TheBus a lot too? A 3-Day Pass runs $20 and a 7-Day Pass runs $45. Both cover TheBus and Skyline, and both count from the hour of your first tap rather than the calendar day.
For most visitors who mix rail with a rental car, plain stored value and the daily cap cost less than a pass.
One child age 5 and under rides free with each paying adult, as long as the keiki sits on your lap or stands. Kids 6 to 17 get a reduced $1.50 fare, but only with a Youth HOLO card, which takes an application and proof of age.
Do not try to sort that out at the airport kiosk after a red-eye. Just tap the little ones through on an adult card and call it a day.
Seniors 65 and up can get a free Senior HOLO card with a $1.25 fare, and there is a non-resident version. It takes a form and an ID at a Satellite City Hall or the pass office in Kalihi. That makes sense for a long stay, not for a weekend.
Where to buy: the HOLO vending machines at every Skyline station, including the ground floor of Lelepaua fronting the airport station entrance, and the ABC Stores in Waikīkī. The machines take cards and cash.
Register the card at holocard.net once you get to the hotel. A registered card keeps its balance if it falls out of a beach bag, and an unregistered one does not.
Check the official Skyline fares page before you go. The city adjusted several pass prices in 2026, and older blog posts still quote the launch-era numbers.
Hours and How Often the Trains Come
Skyline runs from 4:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. every day, weekends and holidays included. Trains arrive every 10 minutes until 8:30 p.m., then every 15 minutes until close.
You never need a timetable. You just walk up and the next one is coming.
End to end takes about 34 minutes. The airport to Hālawa for Pearl Harbor is under 10 minutes. The airport to Kualakaʻi at the far west end is roughly 30.
Late arrival? The last full-length trains leave both ends at 10:00 p.m., and the last train through Lelepaua toward Kalihi is 10:29 p.m. A handful of trips run after that, but they turn around early at Pearlridge or Waipahu.
A flight that lands at 10:15 p.m. will probably miss the rail, and that is okay. The buses out front keep going, and we get to those next.
The full station-by-station table lives on the city’s departure schedule page. The Transit app shows live arrivals for both Skyline and TheBus, and it is the one app we tell every visitor to install before landing.
Airport to Waikīkī: What Skyline Does and Does Not Do
This section saves you a headache. Skyline runs west from the airport toward Pearl Harbor and Kapolei, and east only as far as Kalihi. Waikīkī sits several miles past the end of the line.
You cannot ride a train to your hotel. Not yet.
What you can do is walk out the ground-level door of Lelepaua Station and get on the W Line bus. The stop sits across from the lei stands on Ala Onaona Street, right in front of the station.
The W Line runs express down Nimitz Highway through downtown, past Ala Moana Center, and into Waikīkī. It ends at Kapahulu Avenue across from Cartwright Road, a block from the zoo.
Scheduled time from the airport to Kapahulu is about 35 minutes. Buses come every 10 minutes at weekday peak, every 15 minutes midday and on weekends, and every 30 minutes after 7:00 p.m.
The first bus leaves the airport at 4:15 a.m. and the last one around 1:30 a.m., so it outlasts the train by a wide margin.
The fare is the same $3 HOLO tap, and if you buy your card at the Lelepaua machine you are set. Cash works on the bus too, $3.25 exact change, but cash gets no transfer. Buy the card.
Going the other way, the W Line picks up on Kapahulu and along Ala Moana Boulevard and drops you at the Skyline station door.
Luggage on the bus has real limits, so read this before you check that third bag. TheBus allows one standard medium suitcase plus one carry-on or backpack per person, and both must fit under your seat, in front of it, or on your lap.
Two big rollers and a golf bag will get you a polite no from the driver. A stroller and a car seat should be fine. A family moving in for a month should call a shuttle.
After 10:30 p.m., Route 42 takes over from the W Line at the same stop, with a single eastbound trip toward Waikīkī. The very late crowd should plan on rideshare and not gamble on it.
How does this compare to the alternatives? A rideshare from the airport to Waikīkī usually lands somewhere in the $30 to $50 range, depending on the hour and surge pricing. The pickup zones moved to the ground level in October 2025, so follow the signs rather than your memory from last trip.
A prebooked shared shuttle sits in between on price. Would you rather have a driver waiting with a sign after a long flight? The Oʻahu airport transfer listings let you compare shared vans and private cars in one place. Read the recent reviews before picking one, because reliability varies a lot by operator.
For two adults with carry-ons landing at 2:00 p.m., the W Line is the move. Six dollars total, 35 minutes, and you roll past Aloha Tower and Ala Moana on the way in.
For a family of five landing at 11:00 p.m. with a week of luggage, take the shuttle or the van and do not feel bad about it.
Finding the Station Inside the Airport
Lelepaua Station sits on the mauka side of Terminal 2, the main terminal, wedged between the Terminal 2 parking garage and the International parking garage. Mauka means toward the mountains, so from baggage claim you are heading away from the runway and across the roadway.
From Terminal 2, follow the Skyline signs up to the fourth floor of either garage. A covered walkway on the makai side of the station connects both garages straight to the fare gates. It is flat, it is signed, and it takes about five minutes with a roller bag.
From Terminal 1, where Hawaiian Airlines and most interisland flights land, give yourself a little longer. The route runs through the interisland garage, over a bridge, then across the international garage to the station. The airport estimates it at around four minutes once you are on the right level.
Follow the floor markings. Do not freelance it, or you will end up in the rental car return lane, and everyone who has done that is nodding right now.
There are also ground-level entrances on Ala Onaona Street and Ala ʻAuana Street. That is where the elevators land, where the W Line stops, and where the HOLO machines are.
The city posts a labeled map on its Skyline and Airport page, and the airport’s own transit page has the same directions from the terminal side. Screenshot one before you land, because terminal Wi-Fi is not the place to be loading a PDF.
Use the terminal restrooms before you head over, because the stations are built for moving people through, not for lingering. Every station has elevators, escalators, and wide accessible gates at the ends, so the walk works with a wheelchair, a stroller, or a very tired grandparent.
The Stops Visitors Will Use
Most of the line serves neighborhoods, campuses, and commuters, which is what it was built for. But a handful of stations line up with places you may already have on your list, and the rail turns each one into a car-free morning.
Pearl Harbor. Two stations bracket the Pearl Harbor National Memorial. Hālawa (Aloha Stadium) sits to the west of the visitor center, and Makalapa sits to the east at the Joint Base gate.
From either one it is roughly a 15-minute walk along Kamehameha Highway, a little over half a mile (about 1 km) on a sidewalk with not much shade. Hop Route 42 or Route 20 from the station for two stops instead, and your 2-hour transfer covers it.
Reserve your USS Arizona Memorial program time in advance either way. The rail solves the parking problem, not the ticket problem.
Aloha Stadium Swap Meet. Hālawa Station lands you at the stadium parking lot on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings, and you skip the parking line entirely. The swap meet moved across the lot in late 2025, so read our swap meet guide for the new footprint and the $2 entry.
Bring a tote for the pineapple print shirts. You will buy pineapple print shirts.
Pearlridge Center. Kalauao Station connects straight into Pearlridge, the big two-part mall in ʻAiea with a food court, a movie theater, and enough local shops for an omiyage run. On a rainy afternoon this is a solid backup plan that costs $3 to reach.
Waipahu. Pouhala Station is about a 15-minute walk from Hawaiʻi’s Plantation Village, the outdoor museum of restored camp houses from the sugar era. It is one of the more moving hours you can spend on the island, and almost nobody staying in Waikīkī makes the drive. Now they do not have to.
Kapolei. Kualakaʻi Station is the western end of the line, a 30-minute ride from the airport. One caution for the Ko Olina crowd. The resort is still roughly 7 to 8 miles (11 to 13 km) from the station, so the rail does not deliver you to the lagoons.
It gets you to Kapolei, where a bus or a short rideshare finishes the trip. We wish it went further. It does not yet.
Kalihi Transit Center. Kahauiki Station at Middle Street is the east end and the biggest bus hub on the line. This is where you transfer for Downtown, Chinatown, the Bishop Museum, and the University. Buses line up under the station, signs point to each bay, and there is a free park-and-ride lot here too.
What It Is Like to Ride
The platforms have full-height glass screen doors that only open when a train is stopped in front of them, so there is no edge to worry about with keiki. Skyline was the first big public metro in the country to run with both screen doors and fully driverless trains.
The whole thing feels closer to an airport people mover than to an old subway.
The cars are bright, air-conditioned, and quiet. There are dedicated luggage racks near the doors, bike racks, priority seating, and plenty of standing room. Strollers stay beside you, coolers go under the seat, and an e-bike is fine as long as you walk it through the station.
No open food or drink on board, no smoking or vaping, and pets need a carrier unless they are service animals. A closed water bottle is fine. A plate lunch is not, and yes, the station attendants will say something, kindly.
Grab the front seat if you can. Heading west from the airport you look straight down the guideway across Pearl Harbor, with the water on your left and the Koʻolau ridgeline behind you.
Heading east from Kapolei, the H-1 traffic sits below you and does not move, and you will feel very smug about that for the full 34 minutes.
Every station has security cameras, call boxes on the platform, and an operator on duty, so a solo traveler on the 9:45 p.m. train has somebody to wave at. It feels safe at every hour it runs.
Park-and-Ride and Bus Connections
Have a rental car but hate the idea of driving into town? Four free park-and-ride lots sit next to stations. They are Keoneʻae at UH West Oʻahu, Honouliuli at Hoʻopili, Hālawa at Aloha Stadium with 590 stalls, and Kahauiki at the Kalihi Transit Center.
Parking is free for transit riders with a 24-hour limit, so it works for a day, not for a week.
Hālawa is the useful one for visitors. Park there and ride to the airport to drop off a family member, or ride to Pearlridge for lunch. Or walk to Pearl Harbor and leave the memorial’s parking lot to the tour buses.
The full list with entrance directions is on the city’s stations and parking page.
Every station is also a bus stop, and the HOLO transfer window is the glue. Route A CityExpress runs from Hālawa to downtown, Ala Moana, and UH Mānoa every 10 minutes, timed to the trains. Route 20 threads the airport, Pearl Harbor, downtown, and Waikīkī.
Route 40 runs the length of the west side. Check the bus connections page for the map at each station, or just ask the operator at the gate, who will know.
What Is Coming: The Downtown Extension
Segment 3 is under construction right now. It adds 3.3 miles (5.3 km) and six stations east of Kahauiki. The first three are Mokauea in Kalihi, Niuhelewai at Honolulu Community College, and Kūwili in Iwilei. Then come Hōlau in Chinatown, Kuloloia downtown, and Kaʻākaukukui at the Civic Center on the edge of Kakaʻako.
The first guideway column went up near Nimitz Highway and Fort Street on March 31, 2026, and station foundation work started in Chinatown in April. The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation is targeting the end of major construction in 2030, with passenger service in 2031.
Until then, expect lane closures along Dillingham Boulevard, Nimitz, and Halekauwila Street, especially at night.
When it opens, the airport to Chinatown becomes a straight shot with no bus. A further extension to Ala Moana and Kālia near Waikīkī is on the wish list, but it has no funding and no date. Do not plan a 2031 trip around a train to the beach.
Follow progress on the HART project page.
Quick Reference
📍 Lelepaua Station (Daniel K. Inouye International Airport): mauka side of Terminal 2, between the Terminal 2 and International parking garages, 4th floor walkway or ground level on Ala Onaona Street
📍 Hālawa Station (Aloha Stadium): 99-232 Kamehameha Highway, ʻAiea, park-and-ride entrance from Salt Lake Boulevard
📍 Kahauiki Station (Kalihi Transit Center): Middle Street at Kamehameha Highway, Honolulu
Hours: 4:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily. Trains every 10 minutes until 8:30 p.m., then every 15 minutes.
Fares: $2 HOLO card, then $3 per tap for a 2-Hour Pass with free bus transfers. $7.50 daily cap. 3-Day Pass $20, 7-Day Pass $45. One keiki age 5 and under free per paying adult.
Airport to Waikīkī: Skyline to Kalihi is the wrong direction. Take the W Line bus from the stop in front of Lelepaua Station instead, about 35 minutes to Kapahulu, same $3 tap.
Questions: Skyline and TheBus customer service at (808) 848-5555. HOLO card help at (808) 768-4656, weekdays 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
More from Wanderlustyle
Getting Around Oʻahu Without Losing Your Mind
Where to Stay on Oʻahu: Every Region Compared
The Perfect 3-Day Oʻahu Itinerary for First-Timers
Hawaiʻi on a Budget: The Complete Money-Saving Guide
Things to Do Near Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam
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