Good morning and welcome to our Friday edition of Sunrise Santa Cruz. Back in early March when the sun no longer set over the ocean on the westside I headed up the coast to Davenport for my sunset fix. This is our setting for today’s photo drama. Turns out it wasn’t a spectacular night for clouds or colors but when I arrived at my shooting spot along the cliffs there was a tree full of cormorants. They were just hanging out on the coast, checking out the twilight action while some of the more aggressive birds attacked their neighbors in the tree. They seem to love this one particular Monterey Cypress. Every time I hit this spot on the cliffs they are there waiting, squawking silhouettes in the evening sky.

Moving just a tad west, I love Hawaii and the tropical lifestyle. Not that I don’t worship Santa Cruz’s 51 degree water temperature, but that’s major shrinkage action. There’s been an aerial shakeup in the islands. On April 1, Aloha Airlines announced it had halted all passenger service, signaling an end of an airline that had served Hawaii for more than 60 years. Aloha, which had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 20, was a casualty of fierce competition, rising fuel prices and shifting trade winds . “We simply ran out of time to find a qualified buyer for our passenger business,” Aloha President David Banmiller said back in late March. “We had no choice but to take this action.” Actually, their only other choice was to charge $100 a bag for those mini-pretzels and a cup of guava juice but that might have seemed a tad pricey.

Aloha had suffered since Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group Inc. launched a new interisland carrier called Go airlines in 2006, triggering a local airfare war. In January, Go reported a $20 million operating loss in its first 16 months of operations. Nothing like starting strong, just like this year’s the SF Giants and the Detroit Tigers. Meanwhile, Aloha and Hawaiian Airlines, the other major carriers reported losses of nearly $64 million since Go began operating. In retrospect, I believe a more appropriate name for the new airline would be Go Away.

Aloha’s bankruptcy filing said the airline was unable to generate sufficient revenue due to what it called “predatory pricing” by Go. As Banmiller says, “Unfortunately, unfair competition has succeeded in driving us out of business. Aloha, the second largest Hawaii carrier, operated a fleet of 26 Boeing 737’s to serve five airports statewide, six mainland U.S. destinations and a small atoll off of Fiji.

According to Aloha’s Web site, the airline was founded in 1946 by Chinese American publisher Ruddy Tongg and his friends at a time when the best jobs, opportunities and mahi mahi in Hawaii went to the white establishment. Some of Tongg’s friends even had trouble getting airline seats and pillows on the flights. They figured, why not start our own airline. Banks wouldn’t lend the money to Asians then, so Tongg turned to a hui, or investment group, that included Hung Wo Ching, a Chinese American who later became the airline’s president.

So this shocking turn of events left a few travelers in the lurch. Aloha advised passengers who didn’t want to fly another airline and who want a refund to contact their travel agents or credit card companies. Those who paid by cash or check may file a claim in bankruptcy court. Good luck with that. It would be easier trying to squeeze water out of a rock. The shutdown will affect about 1,900 employees and two stowaways. And it’s been a rough week for airline travelers as on Wednesday more than 100,000 people scrambled to make new travel plans as American Airlines canceled more than 1,000 flights nationwide due a shortage of honey roasted peanuts. Waiting on a long line at the airport to finally get to the counter and find out your flight has been canceled-it doesn’t get much better than that.

So that’s your airline report. Let’s change gears and finish off the week with a little levity and some airplane humor. A nervous passenger fidgeted from the moment he boarded the plane. After a while he looked out the window and said to the passenger next to him, “We must be miles up in the air. Those people look like ants.” The other passenger said, “Those are ants. We haven’t taken off yet.”

And two gentlemen were sitting on a park bench discussing their likes and dislikes. One said, “I’m scared to fly. I don’t believe planes are safe.” “That’s dumb,” said the other. “Do you think trains are safe. Last week there was a great train wreck and almost four hundred people were killed.” “No kidding, what happened?” “A plane fell on it.” Okay, good night everybody and drive home safely. Have a fabulous weekend and remember, the future is in plastic. More about that on Monday.