ATA Airlines Shutdown

[mel]

Hot on the heals of Aloha Airlines closing, ATA Airlines announced their shutdown tonight.

ATA Airlines late tonight announced it was ceasing operations as of 10 p.m. Hawai'i time.

However, ATA was planning to fly a Honolulu-to-Phoenix flight, Flight 4586, at 12:10 a.m. Thursday morning. That flight was originally scheduled to leave Honolulu about 10 p.m. today.

ATA's Hawai'i routes were to Los Angeles, Oakland, Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Besides Honolulu and probably other neighbor island airports, ATA was the only airline that flew to the mainland from Hilo. They had an Oakland flight which was discontinued a few months ago. They flew either Boeing 757 aircraft or 737 ETOPS planes.

[Karen]

Re: ATA Airlines Shutdown

Shame on me for posting a comment about this before even reading the story about this. I'm burning the midnight oil after a day of running and about to crash, perchance to sleep but wow....ATA leaving the islands. I gotta read when not so tired and find out if they, too are having serious money problems. They did before and Southwest Air bailed them out. Hmm...dangit! My relatives that work for Southwest can fly here for free, er....uh...coulda shoulda, LOL.

[joshuatree]

Re: ATA Airlines Shutdown

ATA was operating on thin ice for a while. Which is why it was odd to hear Aloha tried seeking them to bail them out. So, it appears there will be less transpacific flights. I don't think this will impact Oahu as much as the neighbor islands?

[leashlaws]

Re: ATA Airlines Shutdown

It seems that when I've seen game shows with prizes of a trip to Hawaii it is
often using ATA as the carrier.

[Mike_Lowery]

Re: ATA Airlines Shutdown

Hmm...ATA says they could no longer operate because they lost a key military charter contract.

I don't think this will have a direct effect on Kauai, since ATA ceased their Oakland-Lihue flight a while back.

[tutusue]

Re: ATA Airlines Shutdown

It was mentioned on the news this morning that the ATA workers were contract employees provided by Aloha Airlines and that the contract division was still operating. Apparently some of those contract workers became ATA employees a couple of years ago. Now this shutdown without anyone available at the airport for explanations and kokua. Whatta shame.

[Lei Liko]

Re: ATA Airlines Shutdown

When we were searching around for the best fare to PHX last week, the boy wanted to book with ATA because they were $10 cheaper. I put my foot down because I have a strong loyalty to Hawaiian, of course. All my miles are either on Hawaiian or Continental.

I'd rather pay the $10 extra than fly ATA.

Good thing he listened or else he and I would be SOL next Tuesday.

[NoCal Boy]

Re: ATA Airlines Shutdown

Whew! We *just* saw my MIL and niece back home on ATA from Oakland last week. And Grandma, who flew over with them and is staying longer, was lucky not to have booked a return yet. Maybe it's a little yang to the yin of my wife losing beaucoup AlohaPass miles this week!

It's a shame; in three days between the two airlines folding we've now lost our favorite departure city when she wants to go home herself. Oakland is much easier to navigate than SFO.

Only flew them once myself but had a pleasant experience. We'd flown over on Aloha, then I impetuously adopted a puppy from my auntie. Then we find out Aloha doesn't (sigh; didn't) fly pets - period. We scrambled and bought a round trip home from HNL on ATA, returning a couple months later for a wedding; then going home on our original ticket on Aloha. I mostly remember rushing to pay a vet a couple hundred bucks to sign off the *required* docs showing the dog was fit for travel; then having neither the ATA check-in agent nor anyone else ever asking to see the paperwork!

[craigwatanabe]

Re: ATA Airlines Shutdown

Thats too bad since ATA had direct flights from Hilo to the West Coast making that interisland flight to Oahu unnecessary. Oh well.

Super Ferry please come to Hilo!