Now that Aloha Airlines has closed its doors and parked its airplanes for good, it seems like 1991 all over again to me. That’s the year the airline I worked for, Midway 1, shut down because of high fuel prices - at least they seemed high then - and some silly management decisions. Eastern and Pan Am fell silent around the same time.

Some 2,000 people lost their livelihoods in Hawaii yesterday when Aloha ceased service. Here’s a photo a Jetwhine reader shot yesterday, probably one of the last of any of these old Boeing 737-200s flying I bet.

I can only say that I know what those Aloha employees are feeling … something akin to having been kicked hard in the stomach by someone you thought was a friend.

Everyone flying today should take a minute and think how their own lives would change if this happened to them. Maybe a better question is what can be done now, before your airline shuts down for good.

Aloha folks.

Rob Mark, editor

Read the complete post at http://www.jetwhine.com/2008/04/death-of-an-another-airline/