Originally Posted by
cuyp
There was long ago another factor in the Hawaiian-Aloha competition that people don't like to talk about, but was relevant to the 50s and 60s. Aloha was founded by a Chinese group, and many local Asians preferred Aloha because they received condescending service from Hawaiian which was haole-owned. It's not just a Ford and GM thing: for neighbor-island Chinese like my parents and grandparents, it was a way of escaping petty racism. This was really glossed over in the news about Aloha's demise, and of course it vanished by the 70s. But it was not all sweetness and light in HI. I myself preferred Hawaiian once they got the new 717s since AQ (TS) ran those scary 732s.
Absolutely correct. Growing up in Kailua in the late 1950's and 1960's, the old "TPA Aloha Airlines" was founded by Chinese-Americans. The "TPA" stood for Trans Pacific Airlines, and the original business plan was for flights to Asia as well as inter-island. In those days, Aloha had a fleet of DC3 Viewliners (elongated windows great for taking pictures from), which ultimately gave way to F-27's and Viscounts; Hawaiian had some DC3's and Convair 340's.
Despite what people may say, Hawaii has a long history of racist tendencies (not only haole-Asian, but also the other way round, especially since statehood). That's one reason Hawaii generally votes Democratic - the governors prior to statehood were appointed by the President and were always caucasian.
Jeff