In 2016, representatives of the Tokyo-based All Nippon Airways‚ Japan’s largest airline — met with the head of Hawaii’s airports division, Ross Higashi, to propose passenger service via its double-decker Airbus A380 planes to the islands.

The move could mean hundreds more visitors — and their dollars — landing daily from Japan. But it would also require about $15 million in upgrades to two loading bridges plus other fixes at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.

“I’m not going to tell them ‘no,'” Higashi said of that exchange two years ago with ANA officials. The problem, as he explained it Friday, was that their meeting took place in March after the state Department of Transportation’s budget had already been set. The earliest he could try to get the funds would be July 2017, he said.

Read more: http://www.civilbeat.org/2018/03/airlines-pushing-to-take-over-honolulu-airport-operations