Leaper
April 5, 2008, 6:43am
21
I’d never even heard of ATA before I read this thread. Weird, especially since the linked CNN article makes them sound pretty significant.
Boy, that sure does suck for Skybus. From what I’ve seen, their loads have been consistently pretty damn high. Unfortunately, high loads don’t necessarily mean profit (or even breaking even), but that’s pretty shocking about them dumping service immediately.
ETA: JetBlue stepping up to help out stranded Skybus customers and employees
Press Release here
$50 standby for customers and $10 standby for employees.
Not a bad deal at all, coming just hours after Skybus’ announcement.
Nevermind that it’s all about image and bottom line, it’s kinda warm and fuzzy, to see airlines stepping up to help people.
I doubt anyone has heard who is outside of the islands of Aloha Airlines going belly-up, but one of the two major island-owned/based airline companies, (Aloha Airlines), has gone out of business. Then a day or so later, ATA also went out of business. Due to this, thousands of people have become stranded on both the islands and the mainland.
Hawaiian Airlines, the second major airline company based in Hawaii, has stepped up. They’ve taken it upon themselves to try and fly people back home who have been stranded, filling up empty seats and sending an extra plane or two to help those who have been stranded by ATA and Aloha Airlines. I haven’t heard on the news of any other airline stepping up with this kind of aloha and generosity, but I hope that other companies catch wind of Hawaiian Airline’s helping hand and help to pitch in and help those who are just wanting to get home. Plus, they’ve added a one-time extra flight all the way to San Francisco and to Los Angeles to get people back home. ( http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/5293/197/ / http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/5231/40/ )
On a smaller but just as awesome scale, a female wrestling team from a highschool here in Hawaii ended up being stranded on the mainland due to ATA’s shutting down, and one of the parents of the girls used his credit card to pay over $4000 to get the entire team back home. That was just awesome on his part!
Late addition: I’ve just read that US Airways is trying to help out too. I’m glad that companies are stepping up, because those poor people stranded by no fault of their own…it’s awful.
well I certainly noticed! Very sad. The islands will miss their services. I just hope that start-up that put them out of business follows them to court soon.
Um, thanks for the map, but I’m already familiar with the geography from my years living there. I knew it was a long way, but I was getting the impression that the ferry boated around all the islands.
Moirai
April 5, 2008, 10:50pm
26
I had no idea that you had lived in Hawaii. My bad. Considering the geography expertise of most Americans, I tend to assume… Sorry about that.
The wife and I are both UH grads. That’s where we met.
But they were using boats long before airplanes came along. Why can’t they operate boat services in a non-harmful manner?
