[BIGLOOK]

This photo was taken at SF airport at a much later date. It say San Francisco on the wall above the Philippine Airlines banner which is above the ticketing counter. It isn't a photo of HNL.



This photo is of the old John Rodgers terminal in Honolulu c. 1960s. The small banner above the check baggage counter doesn't read San Francisco, it reads Los Angeles.

[wideminded]

It say San Francisco on the wall above the Philippine Airlines banner which is above the ticketing counter.

The words "San Francisco" are not on the wall but on a sign hanging from the metal pole in the foreground.

This photo is of the old John Rodgers terminal in Honolulu c. 1960s. The small banner above the check baggage counter doesn't read San Francisco, it reads Los Angeles.

Clearly there are other metal poles in the picture above other check-in spots further down the counter, although they are too far away for the signs to be visible. It is also possible that there are other check-in spots out of the frame to the right.

[jellybean]

Here's the full screen picture of the 1960 Honolulu airport. You can clearly see the signs hanging from the poles attached to the ticket counters. The sign in the Obama photo that says San Fransico is one of these signs.

The Hawaii State Government details the history of John Rodgers Airport up through 1947. If you scroll down almost to the bottom of the page, it says this:

Every available foot of frontage for fixed base operators at John Rodgers Airport was optioned by mid-1946. Space in the overseas terminal was at a premium. Requests for space from prospective trans-Pacific operators included the following:

• Australian National Airways
• China National Aviation Corp.
• Far East Air Transport
• KNILM (Dutch Airlines)
• Matson Navigation Co.
• Pacific Overseas Airlines
• Pan American Airways
• Philippine Airlines
• Samoan Area Airways
• Transocean Airlines
• United Air Lines

See also: 1940's

In 1947, all commercial overseas flights between the West Coast of the U.S., Australia, the Philippines, and East Asia were operating from the Overseas Terminal on the south side of the airport. All interisland operators were based on the north side of the airport.