Aloha......Goodbye

[Garry Russell]

Aloha Airlines is to close after more than 60 years

http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/a ... 1709990001

Garry

[DanKH]

Leif may be sad to hear that...

Another one bites the dust... :-(

[FlyTexas]

Sad. Remember when one of their 737's blew its top? :o

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/2001/ ... news1.html

Brian

[Garry Russell]

Unfortunately the Airline away from the area is largely remebered for that one incident.

Shame after so long giving the Islands service. :-(

But a good plus out of that was the strength of the remaining airframe and the skill of the crew in returning with it in that condition...remarkable

Garry

[DispatchDragon]

Funnily enough it was the only airline in the islands that I never flew on

I even jumpseated on a "Mahalo" ATR many moons ago

Now all that left is Hawaiian and "Go" which is under investigation and may not be around much longer either

Go was largely responisble for Alohas demise engaging in a airfare war - Mesa should be very happy that an

upstart that was a 135 operator a few years ago engaging in "Buy your way into being a first officer" has managed

to destroy a 60 year old tradition that as Garry said is remembered on the mainland and over the pond sadly for

one accident with one fatality - maybe it should be remembered that Aloha and Hawaiian had two of the best

safety records in the industry while at the same time holding the records for the highest number of cycles on

any fleets in the world. On a similar note USA Today and The Wall Street Journal both made statements

to the effect that this was the tip of the ice berg - and that if oil hits $110 USD a barrell there will be only two

airlines in the US that can and will make a profit.....any guess's at which two????

PS - Aloha Cargo (which operates 737-200Fs will continue - its been bought out by Saltchuk Resources out of

Anchorage - They own Northern Air Cargo , Hawaii Maratime, and seveal shipping companies, so the Bird of Paradise

and the callsign will still be seen and heard in the islands


Mahalo

Leif

[Garry Russell]

Hi Leif

Hopefully if the upstart does go then perhaps some sort of buy out is possible

They seem to be stopping pax flights.......so perhaps they will hold it in limbo rather than wind it up.saort of put it on pause

Aloha always seemed to offer a freindly face that is so typical of the Hawaiian image.

Sadly it seems that this is, for now at least, yet another example of an institution pushed aside by a faceless corporate type company that offers bargains not so you can travel cheap but because in the end they can make more money.

Sad indeed :-(

Garry

[DispatchDragon]

Sorry to bump this back up

But I feel this is a better forum in which to air this than others

Its 0930GMT on 05/04/2008 and in one week 3 scheduled carriers and one supplemental operator have ceased operation.

Although for those of us on the inside none came as a huge surprise it reveals something about the state of the industrty in the US

Goodbye to Aloha, American Trans Air, Champion (a large 727 charter operator out of Texas) and Skybus has just closed its doors

I feel for the 6000 airline employees who have found themselves unemployed this week

There but for the grace of god

Leif

[Garry Russell]

Hi Leif

How sad

I'm supprised about ATA seeing how they built themselves up over the year strongly building up.

Any hope for any of them?

Garry

[DispatchDragon]

No Garry - they flew their last flight two days ago into KLAS from Honolulu

Their domestic operation ceased at the same time

They were mostly funded by SouthWest and current gouge has it that they became to much of a liability to the purple people eaters

who only backed them to have access to gates at KMDW

I rode back on them three weeks back and talked with the crew on that flight - even then they weren't sure they had a home to go back to

I could give the names of 4 more candidates who are all cash poor presently - but I will not speculate as I said - there but for the grace of god :-(


Leif

[speedbird591]

Its 0930GMT on 05/04/2008 and in one week 3 scheduled carriers and one supplemental operator have ceased operation.

Although for those of us on the inside none came as a huge surprise it reveals something about the state of the industrty in the US

And not just in the US, Leif. It looks as though the writing is on the wall for several more airlines, yet. The global economic problems are affecting everybody (except, apparently, Asia). This article from The Times spells out the problems.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/b ... 662046.ece

Ian :-(