Airlines Serving Hawaii Filling Gap Caused by Shut Down of Aloha Airlines

Visitors To and Around Hawaii Should Have Little Trouble Finding Flights

HONOLULU, April 1, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- State tourism officials are
confident that airlines providing flights between the U.S. mainland and Hawaii
will quickly fill the void left by the sudden shut down of Honolulu-based
carrier Aloha Airlines on Monday, March 31, and report that interisland
airlines have moved swiftly to boost air travel capacity around the Hawaiian
Islands.
Aloha Airlines filed for its second bankruptcy in three years on March 20.
Reports that Aloha was short of cash and unlikely to find new investment money
prompted other airlines to prepare contingency plans for its possible closure.
"It is a sad day for a great airline with a long history of serving
Hawaii," said John Monahan, president and CEO of the Hawaii Visitors and
Convention Bureau (HVCB). "However, the airline community serving Hawaii
anticipated that this might happen and has been quick to fill the void left by
Aloha's closing."
The amount of airline seats between the major Hawaiian Islands of Kauai,
Oahu, Maui and Hawaii's Big Island bulked up almost two years ago when go!
airlines began providing service. As a consequence, there are three remaining
airlines with significant capacity -- Hawaiian Airlines, go! and Island Air --
to pick up the slack left by Aloha's shut down.
Starting this morning, the three carriers added about 10,000 new seats to
interisland service by flying more frequent schedules and by adding aircraft.
This should adequately fill the gap left by Aloha, which would normally carry
about 9,000 interisland passengers daily at this time of the year.
"There will be a lot more frequency of flights interisland, starting
earlier in the morning, throughout the day, and ending later in the evening,
and Hawaiian is even putting a 260-seat wide-body Boeing 767 on some routes as
a temporary measure to fill the backlog," said Monahan. "Some passengers
holding Aloha Airlines tickets over the next few days may not get the exact
flight time that they want, but they will get to their interisland destination
within a reasonable time."
Aloha was not a major carrier of passengers between Hawaii and the U.S.
mainland. The company had about a six percent share of the transpacific market
flying Boeing 737s to Oakland, San Diego, Sacramento, Orange County, Las Vegas
and Reno. Passengers who might have booked Aloha should not have difficulty
finding alternate flights on other major carriers serving the West Coast
including Hawaiian Airlines, United, American, Northwest, ATA, Continental, US
Airways, Alaska Airlines and Delta.
"Initially there's going to be a backlog of passengers wanting to return
to mainland destinations served by Aloha. Our transpacific carriers are
expecting to work through that phase in a couple of days after which things
should pretty much return to normal," said Monahan.
Visitors currently in Hawaii holding defunct Aloha Airlines' tickets have
been offered special deals by almost all of the airlines enabling them to fly
for free on a standby basis between the islands and on return flights to the
mainland through Thursday this week.
HVCB has created a special webpage at GoHawaii.com/AlohaAirlines to
inform stranded Aloha passengers about the various offers that are being
provided by transpacific and interisland carriers.
The page also contains special offers from many of Hawaii's hotels and
timeshare operators who are providing discounted rates to accommodate Aloha
ticket holders who may have to stay extra nights before catching a flight
home, or removing penalties for reservation-holders who may have to cancel
their trip.
HVCB has also been in contact with the lodging community across the state
to provide front desk staff with airline information to pass on to Aloha
passengers.
On March 30, 2008, 10 days after placing itself under Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection, Aloha Airlines announced that March 31, 2008, would be
the last day of scheduled passenger services both on transpacific and
interisland routes. The airline's last scheduled passenger flight was Flight
261, from Kahului, Maui to Honolulu, Oahu.
Aloha Airlines has created a webpage providing answers to frequently asked
questions at AlohaAirlines.com.
SOURCE Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau

Darlene Morikawa, Director, Public Relations-Communications of the Hawaii
Visitors and Convention Bureau, +1-808-924-0259, dmorikawa@hvcb.org; or Nathan
Kam, Vice President of McNeil Wilson Communications, +1-808-539-3471,
Nathan.Kam@MWC-Anthology.com, for Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau