HAWAIIAN AIR
John "Jack" Magoon Jr. helped shape Hawaiian Air.
JOHN 'JACK' MAGOON JR. / 1915-2003
Kamaaina led
Hawaiian Airlines into
jet age and profitsUnder his leadership, the carrier
expanded to mainland markets
John H. "Jack" Magoon Jr., who as president of Hawaiian Airlines helped bring Hawaii into the jet age, died yesterday. He was 87.
Magoon, a member of the longtime kamaaina Magoon family, got involved with several major Hawaii organizations in his lifetime and became president of Hawaiian Air in 1964. A majority owner of the company, he was named chairman and chief operating officer in 1981 and served as chairman until 1989.
"I know the Hawaiian Air people -- the old-timers -- they really adore him," said nephew Jerry Magoon, a Big Island resident. Jerry remembered his uncle as a private person who was like a father.
Hawaiian Airlines, in a statement, described him as a friend and father figure who shaped the company during more than one-third of its 74-year history.
"I know that he kind of found his way into the air business, and I think he helped to perpetuate the interisland market into what it became in the '70s, '80s and '90s," said Tony Vericella, who worked for Hawaiian Airlines in the 1980s.
During Magoon's time at the company, in 1966, Hawaiian introduced the first jet aircraft serving the interisland market with the DC-9, reducing travel time.
Commercial jet service brought more traffic to Hawaii, which went from having just 686,314 visitor arrivals in 1965 to nearly 7 million in 2000, before a downturn in the travel market.
STAR-BULLETIN / 2001
Under John "Jack" Magoon's leadership, Hawaiian Airlines entered the age of commercial jet service -- and flourished.
In 1979, Hawaiian also became the first airline in the nation to make a scheduled flight with an all-female flight crew.
Vericella said the company turned around from the brink of bankruptcy in 1982 under Magoon and then-president Paul Finazzo. In 1984, Hawaiian started providing charter services with three long-range DC-8 jets. The company expanded from the interisland business into the long flights to the mainland, initiating round-trip Los Angeles-Honolulu service in 1985.
That was long before anyone thought the local airlines would have more revenue from outside the state than from interisland travel, Vericella said.
A year later, Hawaiian was running daily flights to Seattle and San Francisco.
"No matter how dark the period, he was going to do everything possible to turn it around," Vericella said of Magoon.
Hawaiian went from revenue of $10.6 million in 1964 to $632 million in 2002.
Four years after Magoon stepped down as chairman, Hawaiian filed for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy. The airline emerged about a year later but filed for bankruptcy again this year, needing concessions from its aircraft lessors. Hawaiian lost $58 million last year.
Vericella noted that it was sad to see Magoon die with the airline in bankruptcy. "I think there was always hope. He was always going to rebound. He always kept hope and faith," Vericella said.
Magoon also served as director for the Hawaiian Trust Co., Hawaiian Securities & Realty, First Insurance Co. of Hawaii Ltd. and the Magoon Estate Ltd. The family estate, formed in 1930, became owner of significant commercial property in downtown Honolulu and Waikiki, as well as the 23,000-acre Guenoc Estate vineyards in Northern California.
Later in his life, Magoon bought into coffee producer and marketer Coffees of Hawaii Inc.
"My feeling was that I think the people at Hawaiian always had a warm feeling for him because he cared for the people of Hawaii and for Hawaiian," Vericella said.
Magoon is survived by his wife, Jeanette Baker, and daughter Sara Dudgeon. Information about services was not available.
