Aloha Airlines Shuts Down Operations

[Mike Scott]

Aloha Airlines, which recently declared bankruptcy, announced today that it
will be shutting its inter-island and trans-Pacific passenger flight
operations. Aloha's last day of operations will be Monday

On that day Aloha will operate its schedule with the exception of flights
from Hawaii to the West Coast and flights from Orange County to Reno and
Sacramento and Oakland to Las Vegas.

Effective immediately, Aloha will stop selling tickets for travel beyond
tomorrow.

The shutdown will affect about 1,800 employees.

"This is an incredibly dark day for Hawaii," said David Benmiller, Aloha's
president and chief executive officer. "Despite the groundswell of support
from the community and our elected officials, we simply ran out of time to
find a qualified buyer or secure continued financing for our passenger
business. We had no choice but to take this action."

[Adam G]

I had the great opportunity to travel on Aloha's 737-200's a number of times on visits to Hawaii & always found them to be a fantastic airline - fantastic service (always with a touch of hawaian culture added in), an experience to travel on a classic airframe & some very cool, very wild approaches into HNL.

A sad day for their loyal pax & staff!

[Andrew M]

I was very very close to booking a flight in June with Aloha Airline, I would have loved to fly on a 737-200, as its only of the only 737 series that I was really wanting to fly on.

The fares were a bit cheaper, but I was slightly concerned about how old these birds are and the fact that rumors were going around about Aloha airlines coming close to closing up.

Turns out rumors were correct

Sad day for Hawaii

[Gavin Otto]

I'm currently trying to book alternate flights as I was booked to fly from Santa Ana (SNA) to Kahului (OGG) on AQ483 and from Kahului (OGG) to Honolulu (HNL) on AQ207 in early May.

[Raymond Rowe]

I was very surprised when i was told this news tonight.

[Tim C]

I did a bit of island hopping in Hawaii last year and flew Aloha 732's and found them a great Airline and certainly a shame to see them going!:mad:

[Grant Smith]

I did a bit of island hopping in Hawaii last year and flew Aloha 732's and found them a great Airline and certainly a shame to see them going!:mad:

Hahah and you gave Chittock **** for flying on dodgy Indonesian aircraft and here you are sojourning around the Hawaiian islands in 732's...

:D

[Craig Lindsay]

Ive flown with aloha quite a few times 737s and turbo props.I was with my new bride when we flew from oahu to maui we got in the turbo prop the captain fired up the engines and the left hand side **** itself.Off we got onto another one.And on christmas eve we came back from kauai and the 737 was full and it took a hell of a long time to take off and and when we landed back at oahu i was very happy.we bounced to many times on landing for my liking.

[Tim C]

Hahah and you gave Chittock **** for flying on dodgy Indonesian aircraft and here you are sojourning around the Hawaiian islands in 732's...

:D


Lol give me a 30 year old Aloha aircraft over a 10 year old Adam Air aircraft any day Gunnar!

[Kent Broadhead]

Some are alleging unfair competition from go! airlines - who knows..

As for flying on ALoha's 732s, let's not mention flight 243 (but it was a long time ago.....):)

Kent

[Tim C]

Some are alleging unfair competition from go! airlines - who knows..

As for flying on ALoha's 732s, let's not mention flight 243 (but it was a long time ago.....):)

Kent

Hey the old girl still made it down. Considering how many cycles these things do they havent done too badly.

[Kent Broadhead]

Hey the old girl still made it down. Considering how many cycles these things do they havent done too badly.

Too true - I mainly remember the incident because I know someone who was on it....

Kent

[Tim C]

Too true - I mainly remember the incident because I know someone who was on it....

Kent

I bet they are thankful they werent up the front! Or were they? What a story to tell that would be. They havent done too badly when the only thing anyone can say against them is a 1988 accident.

http://www.pilotfriend.com/disasters/crash/images/20.jpg
http://www.pilotfriend.com/disasters/crash/images/21.jpg

[Rhys Xanthis]

I remember seeing that on Air Crash Investigation...boy that was weird!

[Kent Broadhead]

To tell the truth, I've never spoken with her about it - not really something to bring up with someone who you only see irregularly.

I understand that the compensation provided a nice little nest egg, but it would have been well deserved after going through such a "we're all going to die" experience.

[Mike Scott]

Here is the link to the anti Go Airlines site that is being spread around here in HNL.

http://www.dontflygo.com

[Mike Scott]

Looks like commuting out of HNL is going to be a pain for the next few weeks.


Employee Travel Advisory for Hawaii

Employees are advised not to plan space available travel between now and mid-April to any of the Hawaiian Islands for themselves, their dependents or companions as a result of Aloha Airlines terminating their service on April 1.

Due to the close code share relationship with Aloha Airlines, we have extended a special discounted one-way fare to stranded Aloha customers, which is expected to fill our aircraft beyond capacity for flights to/from the U.S. mainland and Hawaii. In addition, all inter-island flights are expected to be full through mid-April on all other carriers


(and now we loose the ATA jumpseat option as well)

MS

[Tim C]

Interesting to note Pilots on Aloha's last flights telling pax to fly Hawaiian wherever they can.

[Nigel C]

Could this be a ticket to mass expansion for Hawaiian Airlines? Or will Go! seize the opportunity instead?
There's obviously room for increased capacity now that Aloha is gone, judging by the comments that all flights are full through to mid april for the other 2 carriers.

[Mike Scott]

If Southwest were smart (which they are) dont be surprised to see them jump into the void left by Aloha. The aircraft are a perfect fit into their already existing fleet plus they can get the gates/associated equipment and a whole bunch of already trained/qualified staff. They fly to most of the vacation spots in the US and some in Mexico so why not add Hawaii if the infrastructure and equipment required might be had for pennies in the $$.

Just a thought to make something positive out of this otherwise very negative situation.

MS

[Andrew M]

Yes it is an opportunity for someone to jump in, but they need to find aircraft fast!

Personally I would question the maintenance of an airline that was close to shutting down.

[Tim C]

I agree I dont think the prospect of 30 year old + aircraft is going attract too much interest. If Southwest etc took on the gap I think they would use their own newer 737's. Its getting harder to find 732's on scheduled Indonesian pax flights now even so its quite remarkable that these were operating for so long in America.

I would love to find out the cycles on some of these planes.


Cheers

[Andrew M]

Well just do the rough maths, very very short flights for most of the day :)

15 flights a day
7 days a week
100 flights a week
400 flights a month
4800 flights a year

VERY rough but you get the idea

Flight 243 that crashed had over 89,000 cycles! So I imagine that the current fleet would be around 70,000 cycles!

[Matt_L]

4 airlines collapsed this week.
ATA, Aloha, Champion Air and Skybus.
As has been suggested this is a major week in US aviation.
Regards,
Matt

[Mike Scott]

I was more thinking of the longhaul flights...Mainland to the islands...the AC that Aloha was using for those trips are pretty new since they only started those routes a few years back. I dont know that SW would want to do the internal inter-island trips....but if the price and conditions were right ..who knows. Would not be my ideal choice though. SW can do well in the vacation market to and from the Islands to thier already existing West Coast destinations.

MS

[Andrew M]

Mike: Yes true they have around 10 or something 737NG's from memory.

So yes a nice fit for Southwest :)