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My uncle was traveling to Hawaii from the late 50s through the 60s setting up radio and TV stations. I sent him the links to the Obama HNL photos as well as the link to the one where the Pan American section is identified as being from the old terminal. He said these three photos were in the new terminal. I'm guessing the reason why the one with the Pan American section was completely empty of people during broad daylight is because it was taken just before operations were transferred there. There was a picture of a newer terminal somewhere, but this could have been from the interisland air terminal or from one of the later upgrades or additions to the Oct. 1962 terminal.

I just heard back from my uncle after further questioning about the photo. Here is my question and his response:

So what you're saying is that the hawaiiaianaviation folks mislabeled that photo as being from 1960 when it was in reality from the new terminal completed in 1962?

Yes, on both counts! The new Inter-Island terminal, built for three airlines which have now bankrupted down to one scheduled, followed. The remains of the old terminal (after years of termite infestation) were used for the tiny inter-island carriers for several years, but then these were moved to the buildings east of the main terminal where they displaced fixed base operators who no longer had sufficient student pilot populations to stay in business.

One of the carriers was to Molokai, the lightly populated island next to the southeast of Oahu, where the leper colony is and where we located the KAIM AM transmitter. One, now defunct, carrier had an ancient DC-3 with small engines so that it really did not meet the FAA requirements for being able to maintain altitude on one engine. The baggage boy would pull the chocks after engine startup, climb on board, put on his steward's cap, and tell the pilot to slow down to about 95 mph so he could sell some cheap drinks. We shared the cabin with fighting cocks, illegal, but very active on Molokai, and their trainers.

This is from the Hawaiian Government's own site:

Old Terminal Building

The old terminal building in Honolulu. This facility was razed in 1965.

Photos and timeline for airports

http://hawaii.gov/hawaiiaviation/aviation-photos/1950-1959/

Left side is main nav for all the smaller runway type airports.

“He said these three photos were in the new terminal. “

Thanks for the explanation and the colorful descriptions.