More than five years after its abrupt shutdown left thousands out of work, Aloha Airlines once again could be flying across the islands.

Island Air is in discussions with Yucaipa Cos., the former majority shareholder of Aloha Airlines, to purchase the Aloha name, according to a source close to the situation. If billionaire Larry Ellison, who bought Island Air in February, is successful in purchasing the name from fellow billionaire Ron Burkle of Yucaipa, then it could be Hawaiian Airlines and Aloha once again battling it out over the skies of Hawaii.

It’s not surprising that Island Air would want to pluck the Aloha Airlines name from mothballs, said local aviation historian Peter Forman.

"It’s been looking like Island Air wanted to become a serious interisland competitor, and that name would be the most prominent name they could achieve," he said.

Bruce Nobles, CEO of Hawaiian Airlines from 1994 to 1997, said Friday that he and another former Hawaiian CEO, Paul Casey, talked about the pros and cons of changing Island Air’s name to Aloha when the two were attempting to purchase Island Air last year.

"We talked about that issue a number of different times, but I don’t know if we ever came to a firm conclusion," said Nobles, who is now a Dallas-based airline consultant. "It has its pluses and minuses. The pluses would be there was a lot of loyalty, a lot of people were strongly tied to Aloha and liked Aloha, and a lot of people in the marketplace fondly remember the name. So if you could take advantage of that, if it still exists, that obviously would be a powerful positive.

"On the other hand, the company went into bankruptcy twice, failed, shut down, and a lot of people lost their jobs. Those are not things that people like to remember."

Casey, who was CEO of Hawaiian from 1997 to 2002, is now CEO of Island Air. Casey has kept quiet about Island Air’s growth strategy since assuming the top position May 1. He said via email Friday that there are "no plans to change the name."

If Island Air does change its name to Aloha, it would bring back a name that hasn’t been seen on a passenger plane since March 31, 2008, when Aloha closed down after 61 years of service.

High fuel prices, inefficient aircraft, management missteps and an airfare war started by newcomer go! airlines in June 2006 all have been cited as pushing Aloha off the tarmac.

Some former Aloha employees are not pleased about the prospects of the name being resurrected unless it also means hiring back some of the people who made the airline what it was.

"We’ve talked about it, and a lot of the former employees are totally against anyone taking over the name," said Joe Kau­we­loa, 61, who spent 35 years at Aloha as a customer service agent.

"You just don’t buy the name, because it’s the employees who made the name to be Aloha. There’s a difference. It’s an ohana thing where everybody made up the name of being Aloha," said Kau­we­loa, who now works as a bell and valet dispatcher at Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa at Ko Olina.

The bond between employees at the airline was so tight that 20 to 40 former Aloha workers still get together on the last Thursday of each month at the 99 Ranch complex in Mapuna­puna to talk story.

Nick Sporik, 64, a pilot with Aloha for 22 years, said, "I would rather see it (the name) stay with the ohana, meaning the Aloha Airline people, the employees and the original owners."

"Go! airlines tried to buy it a number of years ago, and that was a total insult," added Sporik, who is now retired. "In my personal opinion, any employee from Aloha Airlines would say the same thing that I’m saying, which is you should let it rest in peace."

Forman, the aviation historian, cautions that a move by Island Air to re-brand its planes as Aloha could stir up the anti-go! sentiment that existed when Aloha shut down.

The negative feeling could become stronger if go!’s parent, Mesa Air Group, contracts with Island Air to supply crew and aircraft to Island Air, as the two companies are discussing, according to sources.

"Hawaii residents would react negatively to an Aloha Airline that lacks a significant number of former Aloha employees while leasing crews from go!’s parent company," Forman said. "The ‘Don’t fly go!’ sentiment that is still very much alive in these islands would be transferred to Mr. Ellison’s interisland airline. I would be shocked if a seasoned airline veteran such as Paul Casey were to embrace such a scheme."

Yucaipa, a Los Angeles-based holding company, acquired the Aloha name when it purchased the airline’s intellectual property for $1.5 million in December 2010 as part of Aloha’s liquidation. The bankruptcy court ordered Yucaipa not to sell the Aloha name to Mesa.

Yucaipa would not comment on the potential sale of the Aloha Airlines name, while Mesa did not return messages seeking comment.

In 2009 Mesa had sought to re-brand its go! planes as Aloha. But federal Bankruptcy Judge Lloyd King stopped the name change, after impassioned pleas from former Aloha employees.

In his May 2009 ruling, King wrote that "Mesa succeeded in inflicting great harm, not only upon the Aloha corporate entities, but also upon thousands of Aloha employees and their families. Now, through Yucaipa, Mesa seeks to perfect its wrongdoing by becoming Aloha. It is difficult to imagine a court overlooking what Mesa has done and putting its stamp of approval on Mesa’s subsidiary, go!, becoming Aloha."

Mesa’s go! and Island Air control 12 percent of the interisland market, while Hawaiian Airlines holds 85 percent, according to data from the state Department of Transportation.

If Island Air were to succeed in landing the Aloha Airlines name, it would be a reunion of sorts.

Island Air and Aloha Airlines were at one time sister airlines before Charlie Willis’ family-owned company, Novato, Calif.-based Gavarnie Holding LLC, purchased Island Air from Aloha Airgroup in 2004.

Willis, in turn, sold the airline earlier this year to Ellison, who bought 97 percent of the island of Lanai last year.