Daniel K. Inouye International Airport opened on March 21, 1927, as John Rodgers Airport, the first full airport in Hawaii. The territory's legislature and Chamber of Commerce funded it at a time when aircraft on the islands were limited to small strips, fields, and seaplane docks. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the military took control and designated it Naval Air Station Honolulu. It was returned to civilian authority in 1946, renamed Honolulu Airport in 1947, and given its international designation in 1951 once scheduled international service began. In May 2017 it received its current name, honoring the late U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye, who served in the Senate for more than 49 years and was the highest-ranking public official of Asian descent in U.S. history.

Geographically, HNL occupies a position that no other American airport can replicate. It sits at the center of the Pacific, roughly equidistant from the U.S. mainland and East Asia, making it a natural transit hub for transoceanic routes. Hawaiian Airlines is the primary tenant, with the airport also serving as a base for Aloha Air Cargo. A dense web of inter-island services connects HNL to neighbor airports on Maui, Kauai, and the Big Island, layering domestic island traffic over a busy international schedule.

The airport covers 4,790 acres, an area larger than Waikiki, and operates 4 paved runways alongside 2 seaplane lanes. Its most distinctive feature is the Reef Runway, completed in October 1977 at a cost of roughly $89 million: the world's first major runway built entirely offshore, constructed on a coral reef to redirect noise from overland flight paths. The airport was renamed in 2017 to honor Senator Inouye, and its terminals incorporate three cultural gardens representing Hawaiian, Chinese, and Japanese heritage.