No one was injured in the incident, which the FBI said was not an act of terrorism.
The man set the Dodge Durango on fire after driving it into Kahului Airport's open-air terminal, said Lowrey Leong, the director of the Transportation Security Administration on Maui.
``I went to knock on the window and he just lit it up,'' baggage handler Kalani Hoopii told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Hoopii said he saw a can of gasoline and a man flicking a lighter.
Flames rose to the ceiling out of the vehicle, which was about 20 feet from the United Airlines ticket counter, Leong said.
The driver, believed to be in his 40s, was in custody and was being questioned by Maui police, officials said. His identity was not immediately released.
The man's motivation was not known, but ``there's no reason to believe there's a terrorism nexus,'' said Pam McCullough, a spokeswoman for the FBI. ``There's no cause for alarm.''
The crash and fire halted flights for several hours. The airport was evacuated and hundreds of would-be passengers were bused to War Memorial Gymnasium and elsewhere to wait, officials said.
The incident caused no major damage to the airport, but smoke from the fire caused problems with security screening equipment, said Scott Ishikawa, a spokesman for the state Transportation Department. Ishikawa said baggage probably would be screened by hand when the airport reopened.
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