The end of Aloha Airlines' cargo operation last night killed the last remaining hope for former employees trying to stay on with the troubled airline they love.

Some of Aloha's 1,900 passenger-service employees thought they could exercise their union seniority rights and bump less-experienced pilots and cargo handlers. Others with no chance of staying with Aloha nevertheless took yesterday's announcement as the final, ignoble blow for an Island institution that had lasted 61 years.

"You expected this portion to keep living. Now it's not," said Harry Shupe, who had spent 38 years with Aloha in passenger service and yesterday consoled workers as their union representative at Aloha's airport cargo operation.

Yesterday's end to Aloha's cargo service — and the loss of about 300 more positions — was even worse than when Shupe and 1,900 others lost their Aloha jobs last month, he said.

"It hurts a little more," Shupe said. "We were expecting to save some people's jobs. Now it's out the window. This puts a finality to everything."

Joe Kauweloa had been asked last week by his union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, if he was willing to exercise his seniority rights as a 35-year Aloha employee and go back to his old job in cargo handling.

"I've been in passenger service but I definitely would have moved back," Kauweloa said. "Full pay and benefits? Shoots. Right now I have no medical, no dental."

Kauweloa turned 56 on Sunday. Before Aloha closed, he had hoped to keep working until age 60.

"I had one foot out the door looking forward to retirement," he said. "I'm shocked. It's really disappointing."

Aloha passenger pilot Wayne Wakeman was on a list of 40 potential cargo pilot openings, somewhere down around No. 65.

Like many of Aloha's 300 other pilots, Wakeman hoped that someone above him on the list would miraculously turn down a cargo pilot job and he would get sent to Aloha Airlines' ground school in May for retraining.

"I had my fingers crossed," Wakeman said. "Now this. It's blowing me away. Once again, it's something that's catching us off guard. ... Now it looks like I really better dust off my resume."

Ed Paulo Jr., committee chairman for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, talked to two dozen Aloha cargo workers at the Kapalama union hall yesterday who looked stunned.

"They're in shock," he said, "surprised."

Shupe had seen the look before.

"They've had more time than us to think about it," Shupe said. "But it still came quickly."

Like their passenger colleagues before them, Shupe knows that Aloha's 300 cargo employees will each have to deal with the whir of emotions at their own pace.

"Each person takes it differently," he said. "They just have to plow forward."