The federal government has awarded a $5.2 million grant to help hundreds of employees who lost their jobs in the twin failures of Aloha Airlines and ATA Airlines.

The U.S. Department of Labor said it is releasing $3.3 million of the grant immediately to the state to provide training, career counseling, job placement and other employment services for the displaced workers.

"This is good news for the employees simply because it's giving them opportunities to learn a different trade," said former Aloha pilot Wayne Wakeman.

Aloha, the state's No. 2 carrier, shut down its passenger service on March 31 and laid off 1,900 workers in the state's largest-ever mass termination.

ATA, the third-largest trans-Pacific carrier serving Hawai'i, closed its doors several days later, stranding thousands of customers. ATA laid off 58 of its workers in Hawai'i.

The federal grant will provide immediate assistance to local residents affected by the closures, Elaine Chao, U.S. secretary of labor, said in a news release.

"The state of Hawai'i is working hard to ensure these workers have access to important re-employment services that will help them get back to work as quickly as possible," Chao said.

The program is among the several private and public sector efforts to help workers affected by the local airline industry downturn.

The city, which recently hired 40 former Aloha Airlines workers, is providing additional job training for displaced airline employees.

The Neighbors in Need Fund — a new initiative by Helping Hands Hawai'i, The Honolulu Advertiser, KGMB9 and First Hawaiian Bank — is raising money to help pay the bills of recently laid-off workers at Aloha and other companies.

The federal grant comes at a time when the nation's airline industry is struggling and the job outlook among the nation's carriers — especially for highly trained positions such as pilots and airline mechanics — appears bleak.

Wakeman, who has flown for Aloha for 20 years, said the job retraining will help the majority of workers affected by the shutdown, especially those young enough to start over in another industry.

But for many senior employees such as him, it will be difficult to replace the "dream jobs" of working for an airline.

"For senior people, I hate to say it but it wouldn't help," said Wakeman, who has been collecting unemployment since the shutdown.

"We've been in this business so long and we're accustomed to a standard of living that we know of. I don't know if it's the stigma to being a student again at our age and our time of lives."

Former Aloha pilot John Riddel, who also lost his job of 23 years after the carrier halted its passenger service, said he is grateful for the federal government's help in placing former Aloha employees in jobs with other airlines.

Riddel said jobs with domestic carriers — especially those that serve Hawai'i — are scarce because of the recent turmoil in the nation's airline industry.

He added that workers who are hired by other airlines will have to start at apprentice levels for pay and benefits.

"The job prospects are not good, many pilots are leaving the country for international opportunities," said Riddel. "We're going to see a mass exodus of people from Hawai'i as a result of the Aloha closing."