ATA's 50 employees in Honolulu were told at 10 o'clock last night they would be out of work today.

A short time later, "someone said well, let's go finish up the last flight," an ATA supervisor at Honolulu Airport who asked not be identified observed, and the shocked and disappointed employees went about their business to get Flight 4586 to Phoenix on its way.

The last ATA flight out of Honolulu left after midnight.

Shayrah Akers, 25, of Sacramento didn't make it out and doesn't know now how she'll get back home from a vacation.

"I'm stuck in Hawai'i," said Akers, who added all one-way flights out are booked in the aftermath of Aloha Airlines' shutdown and going price ranges from $600 to $1,000.

Akers had planned to return home Tuesday but was told by ATA personnel at the check-in counter she needed a paper ticket in order to be processed for her scheduled flight. ATA records confirmed she had been issued a paper ticket but Akers didn't have it with her.

Akers agreed to pay $100 to get her ticket changed but in the 50 minutes to an hour it took her to scrape up the cash, ATA sold the seat. Akers checked with Travelocity, which arranged her trip here, and was told to come back yesterday as a standby.

She had hoped to leave at 10:50 last night but the flight was delayed to 12:10 a.m. today and all seats were sold.

"I think ATA headquarters and supervisors knew they wouldn't be in operation and that's why the flights here were randomly changed and all the tickets sold," said Kelcey Hamilton, 26, of Kapolei, Akers' host here.

"They gave her no options (Tuesday)," Hamilton said.

The ATA supervisor at the airport last night says he was instructed to refer ticketholders to the company's Web site, where they will be told ATA could not stay in business after losing a key contract for military charter flights.

Aloha Airlines, the local supervisor said, was ATA's backup as the two airlines regularly picked up each other's passengers because they flew the same routes. ATA's Hawai'i routes were to Los Angeles, Oakland, Phoenix and Las Vegas.

ATA averaged seven flights daily out of Honolulu, five from Maui and one each from Kona, Lihu'e and Hilo.