Aloha sheds jet, sticky notes

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Aloha Airlines will return a second leased Boeing 737-700 jet by Sunday as part of the company's $60 million cost-cutting effort, and at the same time hopes to unload unneeded pencils, sticky notes and pins that read "Aloha Is Our Airline."

Aloha, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Dec. 30, will return the plane to owner GECAS after sending back another 737-700 to the Royal Bank of Scotland in February.

The company has said it hopes to save $17 million by returning planes, renegotiating leases and deferring payments, among other plane-related cost cuts.

In its latest financial report to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Aloha reported a $5.4 million loss for February on gross sales of $35.1 million and operating expenses of $40.2 million. For the first two months after it filed for bankruptcy, Aloha has lost a total of $8.1 million.

In a motion yesterday, the company also asked for court permission to sell $9,800 worth of computers, office furniture, office supplies and Aloha items it no longer needs from its soon-to-be-shuttered operations in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Burbank, Calif.

Aloha plans to discontinue its Burbank flights on Saturday and its Vancouver service April 11.

The company said in its court filing yesterday that it's easier to sell the items near their original airport locations because of their relative low value and the cost of shipping them back to Honolulu.

The $2,000 worth of goods at Burbank and $7,800 in goods in Vancouver include a blue Aloha Airlines carpet, an Aloha Airlines boarding gate sign, 10 boxes of boarding passes, plastic waste baskets, paper shredders and paper clips.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8085.