Aloha O'e...

Sadly, 62 years of history came to a close today, with the arrival of the last Aloha Airlines passenger flights. Yesterday, they announced they were closing down their passenger operation, and laying off 1900 of their 3500 employees.

It's no doubt a sad day for Aloha's 3500 employees and their families, and I wish them all well. Some will keep their jobs if the proposed sale of Aloha's cargo operation goes thru, and some will continue to work for the short term with the various airlines who currently contract with Aloha for ground handling.


As I posted ten days ago, between high fuel prices and a ruthless war of attrition being waged by rival Go! (a subsidiary of Mesa Airlines), Aloha simply ran out of cash and time. Long time competitor Hawaiian Airlines found a way of co-existing with Aloha for 60 years, but it only took Jonathan Ornstein less than two years to bleed them dry.

In what is likely to become a textbook example of predatory pricing, Ornstein's surplus RJ's were sent to Hawaii in 2006 after he and the Mesa management team abused privileged information that they'd received from Hawaiian Airlines. Hawaiian filed a lawsuit, and in October 2007, Mesa was found guilty of violating the confidentiality agreements and fined over $80M (which is still under appeal by Mesa). Aloha's own case against Ornstein is slated to go to trial next month. Hopefully, they will continue to pursue a judgement.

But as much as I'd like to see Mesa wind up bankrupt, the fact remains that any possible judgement against them will be too little too late for Aloha's employees.