Aloha Airlines shut down its passenger operations March 31 after filing for bankruptcy.
The airline, founded in 1946 and which flew routes from the West Coast and between the Hawaiian islands, filed for bankruptcy March 20.
Its shutdown affects 1,900 employees.
“It is a very sad day; we hate to see Aloha go. Everyone knows someone who works for Aloha,” said Rex Johnson, president and CEO of the Hawaiian Tourism Authority. “But we have to move forward and be able to deal with our visitors and guests. With a lot of great cooperation from other carriers in the marketplace, we think we will be fine from a capacity standpoint.”
He says carriers such as Hawaiian Airlines, Island Air and go! have stepped up to offer more seats to help displaced passengers.
“Everybody from the airline industry including the major players from the West Coast have been in contingency planning since they announced bankruptcy on the 20th, which is good because we didn’t want to have hiccups in airline reservations,” he said. “We will have plenty of air seats around the islands.”
In terms of the shutdown affecting Hawaii’s tourism industry, Johnson maintains the state will be just fine.
“In terms of tourism and our ability to move people from point A to point B, we think we are in pretty good shape,” he said.
The carrier said it will continue to operate its cargo business.
