I took my very first plane ride nearly 30 years ago and I remember every detail as though it was yesterday. I was seven years old and my flight was bound from Hilo to Honolulu (where my family and I would then transfer to another plane en route to New Jersey).
My mom bought me a new outfit for the occasion—-a pair of pale blue pants, a red, white, yellow, and blue striped short sleeved shirt (it was the ‘70s after all) and a white sweater. We were booked on Aloha Airlines Flight 160 (I still have the ticket stub in my scrapbook) and I was lucky enough to win a thumb wrestling match with my brother and was rewarded with a prime window seat that let me view the Hawaiian Islands from a vantage point I had never experienced before.
In the years since that first flight I must have flown Aloha Airlines more than 200 times, which is why I was blown away when I learned last night that the carrier plans to cease all passenger service in just a few hours.
For those of you who have never traveled to Hawaii you likely have no idea what a devastating impact this move has on the entire state, not to mention the millions of travelers who vacation in the “Aloha State” and need inter-island air transportation.
Aloha Airlines has been an institution in Hawaii. In fact, the carrier has been around longer than Hawaii has been a state. (Hawaii became the 50th state on August 21, 1959.) For 61 years generations of families in Hawaii and abroad have been flying the airline that overcame the 9/11 attacks and a 2004 bankruptcy filing. But, according to the airline’s executives it simply could no longer survive financially with record fuel costs and an interisland fare war triggered by Mesa Air Group’s go!, which entered the market in June 2006. (And started offering deals like these.)
Ten days ago Aloha filed for Chapter 11 for the second time and just yesterday it notified 1,900 of its approximate 3,500 employees that they would be out of jobs by tomorrow. A 48-hour termination notice for employees (some who have been with the company for more than 40 years) and an immediate cut-off of health benefits… not exactly what I would consider the “Spirit of Aloha.” And that’s not counting the notice that employees got saying that they would not be compensated for any unused vacation or sick time.
One of those employees would have been my brother who worked for Aloha Airlines for five years prior to switching careers just 18 months ago. He’s the one I beat in thumb wrestling to secure that window seat on my very first flight on an airliner that just happened to be owned by Aloha.
In my next blog I will detail what Aloha and other local airlines are planning to do to help stranded passengers. I will also discuss the impact the devastating news will have on travelers planning to fly to Hawaii in the near future.
Related Articles:
Flying Between The Hawaiian Islands—Right Now Cheaper Than Dinner For Two
Flying Between the Hawaiian Islands Just Got Cheaper