<Begin Segment 19>

BN: So, okay, we have... we should wind up, start to wind up. I know you joined Hawaiian Airlines and then you opened mainland offices for them, right?

MT: Yes. I opened twelve offices. And you know, this is funny, if I could just digress...

BN: Sure, sure.

MT: Even the Hawaiian Airlines people, I was a kotonk. One guy, I was an orphan, we have a sales meeting, they wouldn't even talk to me, you know, for about three years, four years. And then the Hawaii crest, the tourism started to crest. Then all of a sudden I had four offices, six offices, eight offices. And I think we were probably generating probably seventy, eighty percent of the revenue, maybe. And all of a sudden everybody's attention, right? I don't think any of you guys were...

BN: At that time, was Hawaiian flying from the Mainland?

MT: Before I left, we started the service. I left in '84.

BN: Oh, so you were there for quite a while.

MT: Yeah. And we started in about '82, I think, we started. We were trying to generate that business, trying to get in. And United Airlines kept coming after us and said, "Don't do it, don't do it." I said, "Hey," they said, "We're your biggest account." I said, "Yeah, I know, but we're going to die. Just flying neighbor islands? We're going to die." And they said, "If you leave us, we're going to give all our business to Aloha Airlines, your competitor." And I said, "We got a... if we're going to die, I'd rather dive into the Pacific Ocean, trying to cross the Pacific Ocean than going around the islands." So we started and it just turned the faucet on, wow. But we did well, we did well.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.