Travelers with visions of Waikiki, sandy beaches and island cruises were stranded Thursday at Los Angeles International Airport and across the nation as low-fare carrier ATA Airlines Inc. abruptly grounded all flights and ceased operations.
A single sheet of paper posted at an empty ticket counter at LAX delivered the bad news for travelers on the carrier's three scheduled daily flights from Los Angeles to Hawaii. Passengers scrambled -- with limited success -- to make alternative arrangements.
The Indianapolis-based airline became the second U.S. carrier this week to end passenger service. On Monday, Aloha Airlines ended flights, grounding the only carrier offering nonstop flights from Orange County to Hawaii.
Flying to Hawaii is likely to be harder to book and more expensive as the peak summer season approaches. With less competition, airlines will have an easier time passing along fare increases to travelers on what is one of the more popular routes for Southern California travelers, experts said.
About 3.3 million passengers flew from LAX to Hawaii last year, according to the airport.
At Terminal 3 at LAX, ATA ticket holders were aghast.
"It's just horrible. I can't believe this," said Amy Chen as she and husband Steve juggled three cellphones, three fidgety children and their grandfather and two carts of baggage at the airport Thursday afternoon. They were headed for Honolulu and then an ocean cruise.
Like other stranded ATA passengers, the Westlake Village family found out only when they got to the airport that ATA was not flying, most other carriers were not honoring their tickets, and most other planes were booked for days to come.
Steve Chen raced from terminal to terminal in search of six tickets, returning each time with bad news. "Continental said they could get us on an April 7 flight." But Monday would be too late, he said. "We have a cruise to catch Saturday afternoon."
By late in the day, fingers were crossed as airlines added ATA passengers to their standby lists for the days ahead.
LAX is now the only airport in the region that offers daily nonstop flights to Hawaii, and the number of airlines flying from the region to the island has been slashed from eight to six.
The biggest beneficiaries are expected to be American Airlines and United Airlines, which have a combined market share of nearly 50% of the flights from LAX to Honolulu.
