Several hundred former Aloha Airlines employees gathered at what used to be the reservations office at Stadium Mall in 'Aiea today to reminisce, eat tons of pot luck chow and catch up on how everybody was doing. It was a year ago March 31 that Aloha shut down passenger operations and laid off 1,900 people.

The mood today was happy and upbeat, mainly, people said, because they were so happy to see each other again. The former employees all pitched in $5 each to rent the vacant office and brought their own food.

Those on hand said about 80 percent of the former Aloha workers have found jobs.

Aloha had been a great place to work, many of them said.

"We never would have left if they hadn't closed down," said Karen Goto, who worked at the airline for 13 years.

The party was scheduled to go on until 8 p.m.