by Donald Wood
Last updated: 4:07 PM ET, Thu May 4, 2017
State officials in Hawaii have changed the name of the former Honolulu International Airport to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in honor of the former United States senator.
According to KHON2.com, the bill to change the name of the airport was introduced last year by Hawaii state Senator Ronald Kochi and state Representative Scott Nishimoto to honor Inouye, who helped turn the facility into a major international hub.
While the airport is already being called Daniel K. Inouye International Airport on the facility's website, there will be a formal renaming ceremony on May 30, according to NBCNews.com.
The airport located in Honolulu has undergone four name changes in its history. It started out as John Rodgers Airport in 1927 and changed to Honolulu Airport in 1947. In 1951, it was renamed Honolulu International Airport and remained under that moniker until the most recent change last week.
"We had to find a landmark that maybe had the importance, so for a long time, people thought of various buildings and public structures, but it seems that the airport really maintains that level of authority," state Representative Tom Brower told The Associated Press.
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Inouye became Hawaii's first elected representative to Congress in 1959 and became a U.S. Senator in 1962, holding his seat until he died in 2012. In addition, Inouye was a World War II veteran and a Medal of Honor recipient.
This isn't the first name change that a Hawaiian airport underwent this year, as the former Kona International Airport was renamed the Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole in honor of late astronaut Ellison Onizuka, the Asian-American in space.
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