Prior to Aloha Airlines’ bankruptcy, it was one of only two airlines based in Hawaii. Of these two airlines, Aloha was the first to become profitable, having done so in 1952.
Throughout its 62 year long history, it was among the most beloved airlines in the world, which reflected the airline’s original slogan of “The people’s airline”.
Pre-Aloha Airlines
Hawaii, as with many places in the world, had very strict segregation laws. Blacks and whites, as well as Chinese and Japanese-Americans were all segregated in all aspects of life, including air travel.
For most airlines at the time, the concept of allowing a non-white, even a house servant, to fly with them was absolutely absurd! Even wealthy Black, Chinese and Japanese-Americans were not afforded such a luxury.
Prior to WWII, Ruddy F. Tonng had emigrated from China to the US, settling in the territory of Hawaii. After several years, Tonng found that many Chinese people had been drawn to Hawaii, and the US in general, like he was.
Capitalizing on this, Tongg established Tongg Publishing Co. a book publisher who published Chinese and Japanese recipe books in both Japanese and Chinese, as well as the accompanying English.
This made him a truly wealthy man, becoming one of the richest Hawaiians in only a few years. In an attempt to expand his business onto the mainland US, Tongg attempted to book a plane ticket from Hawaii to the mainland.
However, he was rebuked, and told that he simply couldn’t do that. This forced him to take a boat to the mainland, with the trip subsequently being unsuccessful.
Formation
However, on this trip, there was one thing on his mind: the airline. They had refused to allow him on board, even in spite of his immense wealth.
Instead of complaining about this and/or publishing a book criticizing the practice, Tongg chose to do something about it. Tongg wanted to found an airline that was truly a “people’s airline”.
After returning from his trip, Tongg began to research this idea even more. Originally, he had settled on an air mail airline with additional passenger capabilities, however, eventually decided on being a charter airline instead.
Tongg called his new airline Trans-Pacific Airlines (often abbreviated by Tongg as TPA). The airline commenced operations on July 26 1946, using several Douglas C-47s, reconfigured to act like DC-3s (which they were developed from).
Initially the airline only employed native island residents, and flew only two routes- Honolulu to Maui and Honolulu to Hilo. Within a few years, the airline was known as “The Aloha Airline”.
President Truman himself signed the certificate that made TPA a scheduled airline. In 1958, Tongg stepped down as CEO, with him being replaced by Chinese-American real estate developer Hung Wo Ching.
Hung Wo Ching’s first act as CEO was to rebrand the airline as “Aloha Airlines” as that is what the airline was more commonly known as.
1960’s
In late 1959, the airline had grown to become one of the largest in Hawaii. In an attempt to raise finance for more, larger and faster aircraft, Tongg floated the airline on the New York Stock Exchange.
January 1961 saw the last of Aloha’s powerhouses, the Douglas C-47, be retired. In their place, Aloha bought two Vickers Viscount turboprop airliners from Austrian Airlines, and one from Northeast Airlines.
By 1964, Aloha began marketing itself as the only all jet-powered Hawaiian airline. This was a slight mockery of Hawaiian Airlines who were struggling financially at the time and couldn’t afford new aircraft.
In late 1965, Hung Wo Ching decided that they’d make the entire fleet 100% jet. With this, Aloha ordered the new BAC One Eleven, becoming one of a handful of US airlines to do so (including Mohawk Airlines).
On April 16 1966, Aloha took possession of its first BAC One-Elevens. These phased out Aloha’s ageing Fairchild-Hiller F-27s. At the same time, Aloha’s main rival, Hawaiian Airlines, had taken possession of several DC-9 aircraft.
In response, Aloha soon followed by ordering the much larger (and more reliable) Boeing 737-200. These Boeing 737-200s would be delivered in 1969 and were nicknamed “Funbirds” by the airline.
1970’s
Both airlines had bought their respective jets on the pretext that they’d be able to have more passengers than the other, and strongarm them out of business. This would be followed with them expanding internationally.
However, their expansion had reached its height, as there weren’t enough people to actually fill these brand new jets. As such, the two airlines attempted to merge with one another in order to stay afloat.
During negotiations the two largest shareholders of both Aloha and Hawaiian could not agree on the business model. Hawaiian wanted to fire all native Hawaiian employees, whilst Aloha did not.
Eventually, this led to negotiations breaking down between the two companies. With this, both Aloha and Hawaiian began looking elsewhere for more potential customers.
In 1971, Aloha became an all-jet fleet, retiring its last Vickers Viscount, replacing it with the larger and more reliable Boeing 737-200.
1980’s
The 1980’s were relatively active for Aloha Airlines. Airline deregulation had come into being in 1979, and led to rapid growth within the industry throughout the 1980’s.
Following the example of several other airlines, Aloha introduced AlohaPass, their frequent flyer program. This beat Hawaiian Airlines’ frequent flyer program by a couple of months.
In 1984, Aloha leased a large Douglas DC-10-03 trijet (after having dismissed the Lockheed TriStar). This airliner would be used between Honolulu, Guam and Taipei, however, this service was short lived.
1986 saw Aloha Airlines’ first true subsidiary, in the form of Aloha Air Cargo. This was done through Aloha acquiring several quick-change 737 airliners (737s that could quickly be turned into a freighter and vice versa).
February 1986 also saw Aloha Airlines become the first airline to take advantage of Pacific-ETOPS regulations. From Honolulu, Aloha flew weekly flights to the Christmas Islands on 737 aircraft.
That same year, the airline’s leading shareholders announced that they’d be bringing the company private once again. This resulted in the Tongg family selling their shares in the airline.
Later History
The 1990’s were relatively slow for Aloha. Economic downturns in the US, Japan and the various small islands it operated to all saw the airline cut back its services in order to stay afloat.
In 1987, the airline performed its first (and only) acquisition, acquiring competing Princeville Airways. Aloha subsequently rebranded it as Aloha IslandAir.
Aloha IslandAir was operated as a separate airline from the main Aloha brand. The airline was subsequently sold in 1995, becoming the truly independent Island Air, which has since become defunct.
With the demise of Hooters Air, Aloha acquired several of Hooters Air’s former aircraft, removing the Hooters Own and name, and replacing them with Aloha branding. This also saw a new Hooters-inspired livery.
Problems
As with most other airlines, the 2000’s were incredibly tough on Aloha. The Dot Com bubble had burst at the end of the 1990’s and had brought down many other industries with it, severely damaging the airline business.
On September 11 2001, a group of terrorists hijacked four aircraft. Two of these aircraft flew into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Centre in the worst terrorist attack in human history.
Following this, the airline industry was hit hard, with millions of people refusing to fly on commercial airliners. This hit all airlines hard, but especially smaller airlines such as Aloha.
The 1990’s had also hit Japan incredibly hard, with several recessions having hit the country in this time. This resulted in Japanese tourists not booking flights to America, and Hawaii in particular.
As a result, Aloha had to scale back its Japanese operations significantly. Of those flights that were still operating, the vast majority of them were not even remotely full, with the airline often loosing money as a result.
On top of all this, in a rather familiar turn of events, the SARS pandemic of 2003 caused further damage to the airline industry. This was seemingly the final straw for the tourist-oriented Aloha Airlines.
Sale
On December 30 2004, Aloha announced that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, in the hopes that it would be able to return to profitability soon.
The Hawaii state governor was also optimistic that the airline could be saved by auctioning off its profitable divisions in exchange for a cash injection and/or to entice investors.
In the same month, Giuliani Partners negotiated a $65 million loan for the airline, before selling the airline to Ronald Burkle. This move enticed other investors to join him, which financially stabilized the company.
On February 17 2006, Aloha had achieved all necessary criteria to come out of bankruptcy protection. This was marked with famed former Continental Airlines CEO Gordon Bethune becoming Chairman of the Board.
At the time, Mesa Airlines had just started up Hawaii-based low cost airline Go! this airline offered many of the same routes at a much lower price, which once again forced the newly stabilized airline out of the market.
On March 20 2008, the airline was once again forced into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This time, the airline was forced to auction off almost all of its assets.
This caused the airline to cease all of its operations on March 31 2008. A dispute between two bidders and the airline’s main creditor caused the auction to be dropped and the airline filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
2010’s
In all of this, the only operational remnant of the airline was Aloha Air Cargo which was sold to Saltchuk Resources in May 2008 for $10.5 million. Aloha Air cargo was then reorganized as Aeko Kula Inc. which still operates today.
And that was the end of Aloha Airlines. Or so everyone thought…
In 2009, Mesa Air Group, the parent company of both Mesa Airlines and Go!, announced that they’d be buying the rights to the airline. This would include the airline’s name, branding materials and logo.
At the time, most people thought this deal would go through, however, former Aloha staff pleaded with federal bankruptcy judge Lloyd King to block the sale.
This was because they believed Mesa had caused Aloha to go bankrupt for the second time, resulting in them losing their jobs. Judge King accepted this plea and blocked the sale
In late 2010 and early 2011, the former majority shareholder of Aloha decided that they’d attempt to revive the airline, recreating as much of it as possible. To do this, they would need to buy the rights to the Aloha name once again.
By January 2011, the federal bankruptcy court, including Lloyd King, and the former Aloha Airlines majority shareholder came to an agreement for the intellectual property rights for $1.5 million.
However, staying true to his word, Lloyd King made sure that there was legal recourse against the shareholder should they choose to sell the name to Mesa Air Group.
To date, nothing has been done with the airline’s intellectual property.
What Was it Like to Fly on Aloha Airlines?
Unfortunately, I was never able to fly on Aloha. Instead, I only flew to Hawaii once, flying on Hawaiian Airlines.
Despite this, I was able to interview several close friends of mine (who consulted on this article) who had flown on the aircraft multiple times, both for business and for pleasure.
One of my close friends and fellow pilot, James, flew on the airline a grand total of six times, first flying on the Vickers Viscount, before flying on every jet aircraft the airline every operated! He had this to say:
I was six when I first flew on Aloha Airlines. Prior to this, I had never flown, but the whole concept fascinated me. I remember walking up to the cockpit with my father and talking with the pilots for almost the entire trip!
For the most part, the flying felt really smooth, and the pilots were willing to answer every question I bombarded them with. The flight attendants were also very helpful and polite.
Once I had gotten a little bit older, I flew on the airline several times again. This time was on their jet aircraft, with the flying being even smoother than it had been on the turboprops (as you’d expect!)
Once again, the staff were rather helpful, both when I traveled to Hawaii on a business trip and with my wife for our honeymoon. However, I do remember thinking that the flight attendants were dressed ridiculously!
Looking back on it now, especially looking at the photos I took of the airline, I also think that the seats were rather odd. Each seat was a different color, with them all being in some odd pattern.
However, I personally found that they were comfier than their Hawaiian Airlines counterparts. Not to mention their non-Hawaiian competition’s seats! However, I must add that my wife would not agree with me on that.
How Safe Was Aloha Airlines?
Today, it is physically impossible to get a flight on Aloha Airlines. Nevertheless, it is still important to look at how safe or dangerous the airline was as a whole.
In its fairly long 62 year history, Aloha was considered among the safest airlines in the world. In 62 years, the airline only ever had three accidents with only one fatality.
All of these crashes were completely unpredictable. One was due to an ATC error, which resulted in two aircraft crashing into each other, resulting in a large crash, although no one was killed.
The other two were down to freak accidents with the aircraft itself, rather than poor maintenance standards or poor training on the part of the airline.
However, one, Aloha Airlines Flight 243 has been immortalized in pop culture due to the made-for-TV film Miracle Landing.
For much of the airline’s existence, it operated some of the most dangerous aircraft in history, including the 737-200 and BAC One-Eleven.
However, in the airline’s later years, the airline placed a greater emphasis on safety, resulting in the airline operating some of the safest aircraft in history, including the 737-700 and DC-10.
Legacy
Despite being a regional airline for the majority of its history, Aloha left a huge impact on several things, including the airline industry as a whole!
Airline Industry
Although not its only contribution, Aloha helped to popularize the idea of flying to US-owned islands. Prior to Aloha, most major airlines avoided flying to small islands.
This was mostly due to airlines believing that these small islands simply couldn’t provide the revenues that other mainland US routes could.
However, Aloha’s success proved that this was indeed possible. By the time Aloha had finished, it had the largest network of Pacific Island routes of any US airline.
Soon after the airline’s demise, many other airlines would start similar routes, building upon Aloha’s success.
Many former Aloha pilots, ground crews and cabin staff all went to work for other airlines following Aloha’s bankruptcy. These crews would take the skills they learned at Aloha and apply them on other airlines.
Hawaii
Prior to Aloha Airlines, Hawaii was mostly forgotten about in terms of aviation. The only real airline was what is now Hawaiian Airlines, however, that wasn’t the big outside Hawaii anyway.
However, the success of Aloha and Hawaiian helped to put Hawaii on the aviation map. Combined with the business boom happening at the same time in non-aviation industries, Hawaii soon became an important destination.
Many of the businessmen who flew from the mainland US to Hawaii did so on Aloha. Many more of these businessmen flew from Hawaii to other smaller places on Aloha aircraft.
The business that this generated practically built Honolulu International Airport (and several other smaller Hawaiian airports) into the buildings that they are today!
What do you think of Aloha Airlines? Did you ever fly with them? Tell me in the comments!
Featured image courtesy of Justinls via Flickr.