Two Hawaii airlines with current problems plus nine others long gone, including Aloha Airlines.
Leave a Comment
44 thoughts on “What Went Wrong With All The Airlines of Hawaii”
Two Hawaii airlines with current problems plus nine others long gone, including Aloha Airlines.
I flew Royal Hawaiian in and out of Upolu in the early 70’s. No other airline can match their convenience. No TSA, No crowds, always on time. May I also say that JSX out of Oakland to Las Vegas is a wonder and should be awarded a grand prize for comfort, convenience and economy. Enter JSX’s terminal, walk on to the aircraft and off you go. No waiting, on pre-checks, no crowds. This is a business model that I would think more airlines might follow.
I truly miss Royal Hawaiian Air in our halcyon years and their *Excelent* pilots (all of them kama’aina) and their wonderful sight-seeing inter-island flights. One of their pilots, Dave Henley made such an impression on me (at the tender age of 9-10) that I was Sure I wanted to be a pilot for Royal Hawaiian Air. God bless Royal Hawaiian Air and RIP Dave Henley.
Not mentioned is Hawaiian Airlines aggressiveness in driving all their competitors out of business. They would match or beat even the smallest airline’s fares until they quit operating and then drive their own fares even higher. Does anyone remember what happened after Aloha failed and before Southwest emerged? It cost $400 to fly inter island. It is hard to feel much sympathy for Hawaiian Air.
Well, in defense of Hawaiian, Aloha did lose the top half of an aircraft which eventually led to their demise…..most of us were fearful of their poor maintenance after that. That is why most of went to, or stuck with Hawaiian.
How about pre pandemic Ohana?
Loved your article. It did bring up memories.
Sounds front first thoughts not enough involvement with operations and too open with what these companies get away with. Laws of operations appears to be too lax. Company regardless of their problems should not be allowed to leave people stranded with no explainations. That should never be allowed. No excuses poor management whatever. That company should be out.
I used to fly Royal Hawaiian Air Service in the 1970s, from Upolu in North Kohala to Honolulu. Since there was no staff operating the airstrip, I would make a reservation, and then wait alone down at the airstrip. The plane would land, yu would get on board and then make as many as 4 stops on the way to Honolulu. The bet would be to go from Upolu to Hana, up along Maui’s north coast, then Kaanapali, and maybe Lanai or Molokai before landing on Oahu.
Aloha was a solid airline and had a great customer base. Unfortunately they waited too long to update their fleet. They probably should have taken the bankruptcy and restructuring route instead of holding off to be saved by a private investor who ultimately backed out of a deal.
This is what is too lax. Too open should not be allowed. To manner people rely on good trustworthy service. If this kind of deal is allowed to be so open can’t work. Twisted management should not be allowed in the airline business only solid operators or you are out
The fix is to interconnect the islands with inter island bridges between Oahu to the Big Island. The biggest engineering challenges are Oahu to Molokai and Maui to the Big Island. Unfortunately Kauai may be to difficult. There are already examples underway in Scandinavia with their bridging project and with deep water drilling platforms to overcome depth issues. Even bringing back the Ferry would be better than relying on these commercial airlines. Flying cars can’t come soon enough so it comes down to will, imagination, and detmination which current political leadership lack.
I miss Aloha too. Flew them on numberous occations. Ironicly, I see their planes in movies taken as background filmed at airports, like in “Six Days and Seven Nights”.