With May Day fast approaching, the timing of the Aloha cargo shutdown couldn't have been worse for Paradise Flower Farms of Kula, which scheduled major shipments of fresh lei and lei flowers to florists, wholesalers and lei stands across the state.

Owner Teena Rasmussen, who runs the 30-year-old business with husband, Craig, said the farm sends out 30,000 to 40,000 tuberoses, orchids, carnations and other flowers per week.

"You've got to be kidding," she said, upon hearing the news. "We literally have crates leaving every day on Aloha."

Paradise Flower Farms was spending $3,000 to $4,000 a month on Aloha cargo flights, and Rasmussen is worried that Hawaiian Airlines or other air cargo providers won't have enough space or refrigeration facilities to handle her flower shipments.

Aloha offered nighttime cargo flights and daily office hours at its cargo site at Kahului Airport, conveniences Rasmussen said are not offered by Hawaiian at this time.

"The problem to me is that Hawaiian doesn't have the staffing in its cargo offices to handle the volume, and they don't run night freighters or have hours seven days a week," she said. "We've got some serious drawbacks if we can't even do business interisland. We are going to be seriously affected.

"Right now, this week, with May Day, we literally have thousands of flowers that we're going to have to get out. Coupled with all the produce that moved on Aloha and the mail contracts, where is the room going to come from? I can't imagine Hawaiian's got a couple of cargo planes just lying around."

The Hawaii Superferry is not an option for Paradise Flower Farms because drivers are required to accompany their delivery trucks and the Maui farm does not have its own delivery system on the other islands.

In addition, the Superferry so far only serves Maui and O'ahu, and the farm has customers on Kaua'i and the Big Island.