But the plan worked.

Hawaiian has led the U.S. airline industry in arrivals for seven months in a row and twice placed second in baggage arrivals — all while trying to emerge from federal bankruptcy protection.

For many of Hawaiian's 3,300 employees, the turnaround in their airline, their morale and their faith in the future of Hawai'i's largest airline began to take shape with the push to get planes up in the air on time.

Now, as the July 29 deadline approaches for potential new owners to file their reorganization plans in U.S. bankruptcy court, long-time Hawaiian employees are already looking back at the relative good times of the past several months.

"Sometimes it's easy to forget we're in bankruptcy, because we're doing a helluva job," said chief ticketing agent Matthews Suan, who has spent the past 18 years at Hawaiian.

The average employee has 14 years of experience at Hawaiian. And many of them long ago learned to hunker down and live through bankruptcies and a seemingly ever-changing cast of managers and owners.

But something started to click throughout the company with the on-time task force, several long-time employees said.

It wasn't easy.

"We were all grumbling," said Kuulei Bridges, a customer service agent who works in Hawaiian's Kona station.

Some employees thought "nothing's going to happen," said Luana Kaiwi Gibson, the Hilo station manager.

Suan said, "We'd seen a lot of committees, a lot of task forces — over and over again."

Even the head of the task force, Blaine Miyasato — Hawaiian's vice president of customer service — acknowledged that a malaise had settled in and got in the way of positive changes.

Employees had gotten used to seeing company ideas quickly abandoned. Training efforts lacked both money and the staffing to cover for the workers who attended classes.

"We're so used to not having at Hawaiian," Miyasato said. "We always seemed to be in famine mode."

But even beleaguered veteran employees said they were willing to give the new idea a try. Others felt they had little to lose.

"Your back's against the wall," Suan said. "We're too old to look for something else."

Customer service agent Brenda Kauhi had worked for three other airlines that went bankrupt — Mid-Pacific, Discovery and Mahalo — when she joined Hawaiian six years ago. Her former colleagues all shared the same defeatist attitudes, she said.

"There was no light of hope," Kauhi said. "Everybody gave up."

So when Hawaiian filed for bankruptcy protection last year, Kauhi was surprised by the attitude among her co-workers.

"I saw people willing to give extra to save the company," she said. "It brought the employees closer together."

As 35-year Hawaiian employee Waipa Purdy put it, "We never did give up."

The plan to improve Hawaiian's arrival times started like so many others — as a mandate from the bosses and the creation of a task force.

The group looked at all aspects of the operation, and it was easy to point fingers at other departments and even blame other airport agencies for the delays.

Consultants hovered over employees with stopwatches and clipboards. Undercover "passengers" secretly recorded the performances of employees.

At the same time, employees quickly noticed a refreshing attitude among the top managers. They not only asked employees for suggestions, but actually seemed to listen, employees said.

Hawaiian President Mark Dunkerley spent several hours loading suitcases onto Hawaiian jets. Then he came back another day to put in another full shift.

Then Dunkerley spent equal amounts of time working behind the ticket counters, asking agents what they needed to get passengers moving more quickly.

When the answer — "more people" — came back, Dunkerley and Hawaiian's managers decided to experiment with increased staffing. It worked, and Hawaiian's planes were flying on time. The number of gate agents has since doubled in Honolulu from six to 12.

Individual employees also learned to work through problems instead of quickly passing them off on supervisors.

"Everyone had to be more accountable," said Lihu'e ticket agent Glenda Akina, who has worked for Hawaiian for 30 years. "Nothing was menial. We were empowered. Now you want to come to work."

When Hawaiian was named the country's most on-time airline the first time, Akina held her breath and hoped it wasn't a fluke.

When it happened again and again and again, she knew it was for real.

The success of the on-time effort has since made it easier for Hawaiian employees to accept a series of new changes this year — such as mandatory name tags that employees say put them on a first-name basis with passengers; and laminated cards they wear around their necks reminding them of ways to improve customer service.

Hawaiian this year has also instituted mandatory training classes, an initiative that will include staffing to cover workers attending sessions in Honolulu.

Unlike failed programs of the past, Hawaiian invested $1.1 million in its new training program.

All of the efforts have helped give Hawaiian employees a new attitude. And their new attitude has translated into a new nickname for an airline once known as "Hawaiian Always Late."

Now, when he sees someone running toward a plane that's already pushed away from its gate, Hilo customer service agent Wayne Goya thinks to himself, "Hawaiian Already Left."