Aloha, Aloha

For those of you that have flown to Hawaii it was kinda great that this tiny little chain of islands in the middle of a vast expanse of the Pacific ocean had its own airline. You don't see a lot of "Alabama Airs" or "North Carolina Flyers" or "Green Mountain Expresses" these days. Sadly one of Hawaii's two airlines (the other being Hawaiian Airlines) is going into Chapter 11 and suspending services. The thing that sucks about this is that Aloha was awesome. I flew Aloha in once in 1997 on a family vacation (and yes I still go on family vacations to this day, why is that weird?) you really got a feeling of a locally operated airline that reflected the laid back, beautiful atmosphere of the place the airline was born from (not to mention the most beautiful flight attendants and pilots I have EVER seen). Most domestic airlines today are so corporate, so homogenized, so impersonal, sucked dry by the bottom line of profits.

The really sad thing is, that one of the primary reasons that Aloha is going out of business is the cost of fuel. And wanna know why fuel costs are so high? Not because we don't have enough oil, but it's because speculators are betting on oil and getting rich off those bets. The more they bet the higher the price, the more money they make. The rest of us end up dropping 20% of our weekly paychecks filling up our tanks, while oil speculators, drop the millions they earn on 5th houses, 10th cars, and $7,000 call girls.

I'm sad to see Aloha go, but apparently other peoples greed got the better of them, not an uncommon refrain these days.

Old ass planes: Airlines ground hundreds

Update: A good column in the NYT today re: airplane maintenance.

Have you ever sat down on an American flight to Chicago, or an Alaskan flight to Seattle, or a Southwest flight to Albany, and been like I'm riding in a bucket of rusty bolts, broken seat backs, with ashtrays filled with gum? For those of us with intense fears of flying, our first thought is, "shit we're done for." Then you start cruising, get your tomato juice, settle back into the suspension of disbelief that in fact everything is ok. And, 99.9% of the time it is. However, that initial instinct of that MD-80, Boeing 737, or Boeing 757 being old and rusty and junky, well it turns out, you were right! In the last two weeks American, Delta, U.S. Air and Southwest, have had major problems with their aging fleets. They've been fined for not inspecting planes for cracks, had to cancel flights to check for faulting wiring, and grounded planes for loose wing panels. I mean damn, it's scary enough to be in an aluminum tube going 400 MPH, at 35,000 feet, please don't make us start worrying that you're actually NOT keeping the airplanes in tip-top shape maintenance-wise.

The airline industry has now asked us to do with less leg room, no peanuts, long delays, jam packed planes, on top of ever increasing higher prices. At the very least we thought y'all were keeping us safe. The latest developments challenges this faith.

One thing that would help restore our confidence they are looking out for our lives: NEW PLANES. It's time for American, U.S. Air, Southwest and others to follow the leads of the JetBlue's, the Continentals, the AirTrans, the British Airways, and other airlines committed to newer fleets. At the end of the day it's worth it, the investment you make in new planes you'll get back double in passengers wanting to fly on airlines they feel confident are safe.