Bluegrass Airlines, May 2008

Aloha Airlines 1953

By Allan Lowson

(image copyright Bjorn Larsson www.timetableimages.com)

Aloha Airlines

Aloha Airlines operated in the Hawaiian Islands for 61 years until the final passenger flights took place on March 31^st. 2008 when the airline abruptly filed for bankruptcy.

The airline was founded as charter carrier Trans-Pacific Airlines by publisher Ruddy Tongg as a competitor to Hawaiian Airlines, commencing operations on Aloha Friday, July 26, 1946 with a single World War II-surplus Douglas C-47 (DC-3) on a flight from Honolulu to Maui and Hilo. The name reflected Tongg's vision of a trans-oceanic airline connecting California, Hawaii, and China. It soon earned the nickname "The Aloha Airline," and was flying four aircraft by the end of the year. Approval to operate as a scheduled airline came when President Harry S. Truman signed the certificate on February 21, 1949, with the first scheduled flight on June 6, 1949, following ceremonies held the previous day.

In 1950 year the airline adopted the name TPA-The Aloha Airline.

The cargo side of the airline is expected to resume operation under new owners.

You can access copies of the in-flight magazine and information about the islands on www.spiritofaloha.com

The final message on the Aloha Airlines site announcing the closure ended with the Hawaiian

Phrase for Thank You Very Much : “Mahalo Nui Loa”

Island Routes

These routes were taken from the 1953 timetable which can be found on Bjorn’s website above. They are samples for each route, the full timetable is reproduced below.

The route map below came from the recent airline website which is now closed apart from the closure notice on the front page.

Eastbound Schedule Flights from Honolulu

Honolulu – Molokai – Maui Daily Flight 50

Heading	Distance	Time	Destination	ICAO
090	0	Lv 0725	Honolulu	PHNL
101	47	Lv 0805	Molokai	PHMK
–	40	Ar 0835	Maui	PHOG

Honolulu – Hilo Daily Flight 40

Heading	Distance	40	Destination	ICAO
108	0	Lv 0800	Honolulu	PHNL
–	189	Ar 0935	Hilo	PHTO

Honolulu – Maui – Hilo Daily Flights 72 & 60

Heading	Distance	72	60	Destination	ICAO
095	0	Lv 0815	Lv 0955	Honolulu	PHNL
120	87	Ar 0905	Lv 1055	Maui	PHOG
–	106	–	Ar 1150	Hilo	PHTO

Honolulu – Kona Daily Except Sunday Flight 44

Heading	Distance	44	Destination	ICAO
120	0	Lv 1310	Honolulu	PHNL
–	142	Ar 1425	Kona	PHKO

Honolulu – Upolu – Kona Sunday Flight 44A

Heading	Distance	44A	Destination	ICAO
107	0	Lv 1240	Honolulu	PHNL
186	132	Lv 1355	Upolu	PHUP
–	34	Ar 1425	Kona	PHKO

Westbound Schedule Flights to Honolulu

Maui – Molokai – Honolulu Daily Flight 51

Heading	Distance	50	Destination	ICAO
282	0	Lv 0915	Maui	PHOG
271	40	Lv 0945	Molokai	PHMK
–	47	Ar 1015	Honolulu	PHNL

Hilo – Honolulu Daily Flight 41

Heading	Distance	41	Destination	ICAO
290	0	Lv 0950	Hilo	PHTO
–	189	Ar 1110	Honolulu	PHNL

Hilo – Maui – Honolulu Daily Flights 61 & 73

Heading	Distance	73	61	Destination	ICAO
301	0	Lv 0845	Lv 1350	Hilo	PHTO
276	106	Ar 0930	Lv 1455	Maui	PHOG
–	87		Ar 1540	Honolulu	PHNL

Kona – Honolulu Daily Except Sunday Flight 45

Heading	Distance	45	Destination	ICAO
301	0	Lv 1435	Kona	PHKO
–	142	Ar 1545	Honolulu	PHNL

Schedule Flights between Honolulu and Kauai

Honolulu-Kauai Daily Flight 27

Heading	Distance	48	Destination	ICAO
285	0	Lv 1410	Honolulu	PHNL
–	88	Ar 1455	Kauai	PHLI

Kauai-Honolulu Daily Flight 28

Heading	Distance	48	Destination	ICAO
105	0	Lv 1510	Kauai	PHLI
–	88	Ar 1600	Honolulu	PHNL

Flight Simulator Files

The DC-3 textures for the 50’s era can be found in aqdc3.zip at flightsim.com for the default DC-3 and in maamalo.zip for the MAAM-SIM DC-3 at avsim.com. There is a set of Hawaii scenery to be found at http://www.jz-server.de/project2007.html - but if you have the Pearl harbour scenery loaded that we used a while back – they clash. So switch off Pearl Harbour if you don’t want to spend a couple of evenings figuring out why fs9 keeps crashing like I did. If you cannot access the files from that site, search for Bill Melichar on flightsim for the airports of Hawaii. None of these are essential for these flights.

Timetable (image copyright Bjorn Larsson www.timetableimages.com)