Benny Agbayani is up by 3:30. His shift at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu begins long before the sun wakes.
The 52-year-old ramp agent clocks in around 4:45 a.m., adorned with heavy-duty gloves and the kneepads needed to crawl around the belly of the dozen or so planes he loads and unloads each day, much of which is spent behind the wheel of a towing tractor, pushing and towing aircrafts.
“A typical day on the ramp is tough in that hot sun,” the former Mets outfielder said. “But I enjoy it. It helps me out because now I don’t have to go to the gym. You’re moving around. You get a good exercise doing that every day. And I want to live pretty long.”
Agbayani has held the job with Hawaiian Airlines for the past decade, far longer than he spent as a Mets fan favorite during his brief time in the majors (1998-2002).
