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 31st. 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)