No ALOHA in PARADISE Today ...

[FrankTheTank]

Looks bad for Aloha

http://www.alohaairlines.com/home/home.php

ALOHA AIRLINES TO SHUT DOWN PASSENGER OPERATIONS AFTER MARCH 31, 2008, ENDING A 61-YEAR TRADITION OF SERVICE TO HAWAII

 

[HAL Pilot]

This really sucks.

 

[Bumper365]

What drives me wild are cell phones in the cockpit. They're not used in flight but I don't know how many times I've had to listen to some pw'd weenie proclaim his undying love to his whatever and get sullen when you want them to put it away. Yeah, I know there are circumstances where they're legal but I want to rip them out of their ear and stomp on them like a Jane Fonda DVD.

Now that's the way to go. If theres any kind of disturbance whatsoever in flight. Regardless if it's legal or not, take out that DVD and go footloose.

 

[A4sForever]

Terrible news. It's like we've lost one of the family. Been there more than once, don't want to ever go near it again.

 

[Tex_Hill]

A4s', were you with Braniff when they went bankrupt the first time? My mom still cusses Putnam & will not fly American because of it.

 

[A4sForever]

A4s', were you with Braniff when they went bankrupt the first time? My mom still cusses Putnam & will not fly American because of it.

Yeah -- bad day. It was a great place to work .... and a lot of great people lost a lot.

But Mom's ire is misplaced -- Putnam was just a placeholder and the "deal" was already done when he came over from SWA. Howard Putnam was and is a joke.

If Mom wants to place her boot in the correct cowboy, she should start w/ Harding Lawrence and his puppet-mistress, Mary Wells. Oh wait, Harding's dead and Mary, having retired, is too busy deciding which residence to spend next week in .... should it be the home in La Fiorentina, or the villa built overlooking the Mediterranean in St.-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France; or perhaps their old haunts in Acapulco, Mexico; the ranch in southern Arizona; or their residence in Mustique Is., W.I.???

Retired life is tough, yea-as???

 

[Single Seat]

Unfortunately, unfair competition has succeeded in driving us out of business, bringing to an end a 61-year-old company with a proud legacy of serving millions of travelers in the true spirit of Aloha. ”We realize that this comes as a devastating disappointment to our frequent flyers and our loyal business partners who have supported this company for many, many years.”

A direct result from douche bags accepting wages and contracts at places like GO and Mesa that allow people like JO to gut the bottom out of every other carrier. They may as well be scabs.

 

[Tex_Hill]

Yeah -- bad day. It was a great place to work .... and a lot of great people lost a lot.

But Mom's ire is misplaced -- Putnam was just a placeholder and the "deal" was already done when he came over from SWA. Howard Putnam was and is a joke.

If Mom wants to place her boot in the correct cowboy, she should start w/ Harding Lawrence and his puppet-mistress, Mary Wells. Oh wait, Harding's dead and Mary, having retired, is too busy deciding which residence to spend next week in .... should it be the home in La Fiorentina, or the villa built overlooking the Mediterranean in St.-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France; or perhaps their old haunts in Acapulco, Mexico; the ranch in southern Arizona; or their residence in Mustique Is., W.I.???

Retired life is tough, yea-as???

Now that you mention it, I've heard her mention Lawrence and Casey as well. She called them the 3 Stooges and would have killed them if she could have gotten her hands on them. IIRC she ended up getting 10¢ on the dollar on her pension.

 

[GroundPounder]

A4, did your time there overlap with Len Morgan? I enjoyed his work, and wondered if he was as good in person as he was in print.

He had quite a few things to say about the last days of Braniff, and seemed to have the same take on the situation that you do.

 

[A4sForever]

A4, did your time there overlap with Len Morgan? I enjoyed his work, and wondered if he was as good in person as he was in print.

He had quite a few things to say about the last days of Braniff, and seemed to have the same take on the situation that you do.

Yeah, it did in fact.

CAPT A.G. Leonard Morgan (1923-2005)

Len was a real gentleman -- a pleasure to fly and train with .... in fact, when I went to work w/ Braniff most of the CAPT's were true gentlemen; it was that kind of time and that style of airline. You'd go to training in coat/tie with politeness, courtesy, and competence being the order of the day, both on the line and in the classroom. You know the rest of the drill.

Braniff was probably one of the last vestiges of a "traditional 50's-60's-70's" airline ... a kind of "High & Mighty" operational atmosphere permeated -- everyone knew each other -- customer service was first and foremost -- and hopefully I'm not laying it on a bit thick, but that's just how I feel about it. It was a good place to be by any standard of measurement ...

Len was so highly thought of that someone's even done a Wikipedia page on him, as a tribute:

BRANIFF CAPT LEN MORGAN

Here's a little stroll down Braniff memory lane:

The BRANIFF PAGES

 

[A4sForever]

UPDATE:

ALOHA AIR CLOSES PASSENGER OPERATIONS; 1900 Jobs Affected

 

[HAL Pilot]

I haven't got the official word but the unofficial word is that Hawaiian will be using our spare 767 for Honolulu-Maui and redeploying the 717s that usually fly those flights to add extra Kona, Hilo, and Lihue flights.

Also hearing we are getting a couple more 717s in about 2 months and will be hiring more pilots shortly. Our union chair is asking the company to give preferential hiring to the Aloha guys and I hear the FAs and Mechanics are asking for the same thing.

 

[plc67]

Champion ceased operations as well. Three engine, three crew kerosene queens in a questionable economy with oil prices being off the charts did them in. Hiring is being put on hold at other carriers so it's a double whammy if you're put on the street. Been there and it took me six years to get back to the big iron.

 

[A4sForever]

Here's a pretty good post-mortem from the Honolulu Star Bulletin ... lots of sidebar links for more info:

ALOHA Means Goodbye

 

[A4sForever]

Another one bites the dust ....

ATA shuts down; budget flights to Hawaii in peril; link:

The pool of airlines connecting the U.S. mainland to Hawaii is shrinking