John Magoon Jr., 87; Former President of Hawaiian Airlines
John H. “Jack” Magoon Jr., 87, a former majority owner and president of Hawaiian Airlines who helped bring Hawaii into the jet age, died Monday.
Magoon became president of Hawaiian Air in 1964 and was named chairman and chief operating officer in 1981, serving until 1989.
Under Magoon’s leadership, Hawaiian introduced the first jet aircraft serving the inter-island market with the DC-9 in 1966.
In 1984, Hawaiian started providing charter services with three long-range DC-8 jets. The company expanded from the inter-island business into the long flights to the mainland, initiating round-trip service from Los Angeles to Honolulu in 1985. A year later, Hawaiian was running daily flights to Seattle and San Francisco.
Hawaiian went from revenue of $10.6 million in 1964 to $632 million in 2002. This year, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
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