Aloha Airlines files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

[Dan Roman]

Hugh,

Your talking about the merger.
The Hawaiian folks didn't want to merge is all. It was nothing personal.
The perception was that the merger really didn't make sense from a business point of view. It would have opened the door for another inter-island carrier to come in and compete and it certainly wasn't fair to call it a "merger of equals" At the time, HAL had $100 million in cash and a fleet of 767's and 717's. AQ had less than $10 million cash and the entire fleet would have to be replaced to fit the 2 airlines together. Right, wrong, or indifferent, that was the perception, it wasn't personal, just business.

 

[AQ PILOT]

Hi again Dan!

I disagree with you big time on your assessment. Remember the meeting with AQ,, HAL, and Greg B? Couple of HAL people stood up and said specifically that they didn't feel that the people at AQ had 'suffered enough'? That is PURELY personal.

You and I have talked before, so you know where I'm coming from, but your fleet of 767's and 717's was what helped rush you guys straight into bankruptcy. The $100 Million cash didn't help keep you out (then again, you did have Adams running away with a quarter of it) of bk for long. That said, our $10 Million sure seemed to last forever....but inevitably we too ended up right along side you guys in bk. We both know management was what put us both where we are today!

My feelings are simple. Had AQ and HAL merged, there would have been some training incidents for sure....our -200's would have gone bye bye and been replaced by a few more 717's. Your 76's would have gone long haul like they should be doing anyhow, we would have probably picked up some 75's, and our little old -700's could have been left alone going to neat little places like Orange County. The combined company would have made a KILLING. Hands down with GB in charge we would have actually become a real airline.

So, again, I think there was a lot of personal stuff that came out during the merger deal. I think exactly zero of it mattered in the long run. Adams was always ready to do exactly what he did. The guy is always a step or two ahead of the SEC.

Thanks for keeping your fingers crossed for us. We need all the help we can get. We all pulled for you guys during the ups and downs over there and we hope you'll continue to do the same for us. Great job on getting Gutbomb to comeback to the table and give you guys a real contract by the way! That 1113 dealio was a frickin' joke. Great job! Now hurry up and show us the way out of bankruptcy...

 

[English]

I'm really happy for all my friends at Aloha. Looks like the future is much brighter and the company will stay in business. 90 million is a good chunk of change.

 

[Dan Roman]

Aloha AQ Pilot(no pun intended)

We don't disagree as much as you think. I was just saying what the sentiment was. At the time I thought the combined airlines had a lot of potential, but I guess we'll never know. I remember thinking if Adam's wanted out perhaps this was our best alternative. Time seems to have proven he was willing to gamble with everyones career! We dodged a bullit no thanks to Adam's.
For the record, he was prosecuted (slap on the wrist?) for his abuse of the bankruptcy filing. At the time HAL was debt free with leases just a little to high (GB's words). Adam's abused the system by going C.11 with the airline, not the Hawaiian Holdings stock he owned. The airline never got below 25 mil in cash. Had he not taken the 25 mil out, Hawaiian never would have fallen below 50 mil in cash, before their return to strong profits. They had higher expenses in BK not lower, contrary to popular belief. They never stopped paying any of their obligations and the legal costs were about 2 mil a month. We had more money put into our retirement fund under chapter 11 than had been put in for quite a few years before. I also made a lot of extra money in profit sharing and defered compensation while under C11. IMHO it's the new airplanes that saved our okele along with very large technology expenditures. Most people give our current president (Mark Dunkerly) a lot of credit for keeping Hawaiian on track despite the very negative impact of dealing with the trustee. Operationaly, Hawaiian has never been better and they are now a solidly profitable airline.
By the way, the perception that we wanted you guys to suffer is just not true. I'm sure there is a few that feel that way as there are a few AQ pilots that feel that way about us. But you and I know that is not the majority on either side of the fence. I think that perception may have morphed out a comments by some HAL employees that felt we had made concessions and weathered through bankruptcy to get Hawaiian into the position it was at (new airplanes and well positioned for the future) and they didn't want to share! Whatever, I was looking forward to sharing the cockpit with you guys and see just what GB could do. But I'm fairly senior, so I have to sympathize with the junior guys who were concerned about losing a lot of seniority.

Hang in there, it has to be a good sign that people are willing to invest $90 million in you. Your going to hear all kinds of BS, but mark my words you'll survive. Aloha, just like Hawaiian has a strong marketable image for serving Hawaii, and that is worth a lot.

 

[RJP]

SWA/ATA doing the "Hula"

Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - February 25, 2005
http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2005/02/21/daily59.html


LATEST NEWS

6:29 AM HST Friday

ATA to add Hawaii service


ATA Airlines, which flies to Hawaii from Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles, has decided to undertake a significant ramp-up of service to Hawaii, this time from Phoenix.

The move could bring more discount fliers to Hawaii but offers a competitive challenge to Hawaiian Airlines, which currently is the only airline with daily service from Phoenix to Hawaii.

ATA, which entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy late last year, recently entered into a strategic alliance with Southwest Airlines, the nation's largest discount carrier. Southwest doesn't have FAA authorization to fly to Hawaii, so ATA's service to the islands is attractive to Southwest. Just days ago the chief financial officer of Southwest was named CEO of ATA.


ATA's vice president of planning, who is aptly named Stan Hula, says ATA will launch Phoenix flights to Hawaii in April and more in June, until it, too, is flying here daily. It will serve both Honolulu and Kahului from Phoenix.

That isn't all. By June the airline says it will also have four flights a week to Kauai, three of them from Los Angeles and the fourth from San Francisco. Two more flights from Los Angeles will go to Kona. ATA already has daily flights from Los Angeles to Maui which actually start in Indianapolis, the carrier's headquarters hub.

Just as Southwest intends to use ATA to get people to Hawaii, its closest discount competitor America West already interchanges passengers with Hawaiian Airlines at both of its hubs, Phoenix and Las Vegas.


© 2005 American City Business Journals Inc.

 

[RJP]

Another fine AQ plan goes down the tubes....

Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - February 26, 2005
http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2005/02/21/daily64.html

LATEST NEWS

11:47 AM HST Saturday

Aloha Airlines: Too much capacity to Las Vegas

Aloha Airlines says the Hawaii-Vegas air corridor has become unprofitable because too many airlines are flying it. But the local carrier says it has found a way to continue serving the market anyhow.

"Non-stop Las Vegas service was unprofitable due to overcapacity and highly discounted fares," Aloha said Friday. "To continue serving its Hawaii customers, Aloha will operate daily Las Vegas service via Oakland."

That begins April 3.

Hawaiian Airlines also flies Hawaii-Vegas, and so do charter carriers. Many local residents fly to Vegas on charter aircraft affiliated with Boyd Gaming's California Hotel, which despite its name is a mecca for vacationers from Hawaii.

Aloha, which has the power under Chapter 11 of federal bankruptcy law to back out of contracts such as aircraft leases, also announced Friday that it will return two Boeing 737-700 aircraft this year.

The airline previously suspended service to other Pacific locations and announced its intention to stop serving Vancouver and Burbank.

Despite that, Aloha plans some mainland service expansions.

In April it will boost nonstop service from Orange County to five flights a day, and offer double-daily service from San Diego.


In July, it will add a fourth daily flight from Oakland, with the new flight being one of two nonstops to Maui.

Aloha also flies to Sacramento and Reno.

The bankruptcy court Friday approved Aloha motions to take $5 million in debtor-in-possession funding to keep flying while the company works to secure union agreements.

In a setback to that effort, Aloha mechanics, the last union to accept labor cost reductions, voted Thursday night against ratifying a tentative five-year contract agreement negotiated by their union.

The rejection appeared to take both management and the union by surprise, and the timing of it created a fresh problem. Expecting ratification, the airline had negotiated new wages to kick in Feb. 1. Employees belonging to the other four unions at Aloha got paychecks Friday reflecting 10 percent pay cuts. Workers who thought everyone's pay cuts would start at the same time expressed anger with both the mechanics and the management.


Did they mention that the 737-700 is weight-restricted and totally inadequate for LAS-HNL?

 

[Der Kommissar]

Miss cleo went to go find him.

"'Cause de carrrds, dem dey don' lie!"

I hope you guys can wether the storm over there at AQ. We don't need "fanboys" on either side. The state can use two airlines. Don't wanna see either airline go down.

 

[Der Kommissar]

Did they mention that the 737-700 is weight-restricted and totally inadequate for LAS-HNL?

The 737 seems fine for around the islands (while being totally frickin loud)... and around the CONUS. I wish Aloha would stop screwin around and get some 757s to get the pax AND bags across the pond.

 

[dash8driver]

The 737 seems fine for around the islands (while being totally frickin loud)... and around the CONUS. I wish Aloha would stop screwin around and get some 757s to get the pax AND bags across the pond.

yea.. its kinda like people driving minis that are over 6'4". you can take your wife or the groceries, but not both.

 

[Hugh Jorgan]

yea.. its kinda like people driving minis that are over 6'4". you can take your wife or the groceries, but not both.

Nowwwwwww, I know who Der Kommisar is. Heh-heh.

 

[RJP]

"'Cause de carrrds, dem dey don' lie!"

I hope you guys can wether the storm over there at AQ. We don't need "fanboys" on either side. The state can use two airlines. Don't wanna see either airline go down.

Only TWO?

Hey, stop wasting your time posting here and burn some porn for me!

 

[Der Kommissar]

I have no idea who the hell you guys are talking about.

I can take Frau Kommissar AND at least a few things from Costco, thank you. Unfortunatley you gotta call in some heavy lift capabilities -when you're buying food for Der Kommissar you gotta buy in bulk.

Your avitar creeps me out, Dash8...

 

[dash8driver]

Only TWO?

Hey, stop wasting your time posting here and burn some porn for me!

so he's your pr0n dealer too?

 

[Der Kommissar]

Der Kommissar is always on the lookout for product diversification.

So what's the deal with these FlyHI guys? I heard a little here and there, and now they have a website. Any idea when they plan on starting their operation? ...and are they going to use new ATRs? (do they even make ATRs anymore?). I would think if they (or WP for that matter) could just operate some new turboprops that they'd have half the battle won right there.

And by "Two" Airlines I meant airlines that can fly over 300 miles. Sheesh... you can bring the kid inside out of the mud, but you just can't clean 'em up I guess.

 

[dash8driver]

Don't turn around, oh oh
Der Kommissar's in town, oh oh
And if he talks to you
Then you'll know why
The more you live
The faster you will die

Alles klar, Herr Kommissar?