Other airlines will likely fill the void in our interisland skies left by the closing of Aloha Airlines without much long-term disruption, but the blow to Hawai’i’s psyche may take longer to heal.

Aloha’s demise marks the loss of yet another of the venerable old institutions that helped build and define our modern Hawai’i.

It reminds me of the 2001 Liberty House bankruptcy in terms of both the sentimental loss and the business circumstances.

Worthy competitors such as Macy’s and now Nordstrom’s have nicely filled the market niche held by Liberty House, but Liberty House represented something unique about Hawai’i and we miss it. We’ll probably feel the same about Aloha no matter how well other airlines serve the market.

On the strategic side, Hawai’i’s two established interisland airlines, like Liberty House, have conducted business in a way that has constantly tempted Mainland competitors to come in and take them on.

And like Liberty House, they responded not by toughening up and learning how to compete, but by using their political and economic muscle to try to keep competition out. In the end, this was a no-win tactic for both Liberty House and Aloha.

Where Aloha’s downfall greatly exceeds the Liberty House impact is in the crushing blow to most of the airline’s 3,500 employees.

While Liberty House workers were mostly able to land comfortably with the competitors that came into the market, Aloha’s employees may not be so lucky.

They already took big cuts to save the company in its first bankruptcy, and now face unemployment with compromised pension, medical and severance benefits and bleak options for finding comparable jobs in Hawai’i.

That disturbing reality is what sends us to bed feeling so sick about this turn of events.