Chris Opiopio, known as "Auntie Aloha" by her colleagues, was expecting to retire next year after 30 years with Aloha Airlines. Instead, she is one of some 1,900 Aloha employees losing their jobs today.

"It's really going to be hard," Opiopio said yesterday, as she held back tears while working the check-in desk at Honolulu International Airport.

Tomorrow, the 54-year-old will do something she hasn't done since she was 24 — look for a job.

Across the Islands yesterday, Aloha Airlines employees — and their families — reacted to the news that their ailing airline was shutting down passenger service, effective today. After the initial shock, there was a range of emotions — anger, anxiety and sadness.

Distraught employees were regularly spilling tears. Some decided not to come in after hearing the news; others thought they needed to be there for their colleagues.

Coreen Dijos, a customer service agent for Aloha, couldn't talk about the shutdown without choking back tears. Between helping customers yesterday, she worked to get a list of her colleagues' phone numbers that she could pass out to others so everyone could stay in touch, even after the shutdown.

"Aloha is like an 'ohana," Dijos said. "We're so close."

Dijos still hasn't considered her future.

"It hasn't really sunk in yet," she added.

And like many Aloha employees, Dijos held out hope for a last-minute miracle.

"We're hoping this will all be like April Fool's."

Kamuela Clemente, a dispatcher for Aloha, said he has few choices beyond going to the Mainland for work.

"The current airlines in Hawai'i are already staffed," he said.

Clemente, who has been with Aloha for 16 years and is a shop steward for the Transport Workers Union, said he "can't believe that a company that's been here so long is no longer going to be here. Right now, nobody knows what to do."

Randall Cummings, a pilot for Aloha, predicts the shutdown will have a ripple effect across the state. "This is to Hawai'i what Katrina was to Louisiana," Cummings said. "We're very much integrated into Hawai'i."

The 42-year-old has been with Aloha for four years. Now, he's looking at his options. Few airlines, he said, are hiring pilots.

But Cummings doesn't know how he could start a new career, either.

"It's not fair," he said. "It brings me to tears of anger."

Shavonn Okamura, who works part time at Aloha, said the shutdown will cut severely into her finances. "It's going to be a burden on my family," she said, adding the job loss has cemented her plans to go back to school for a nursing degree.

Okamura, a customer service representative, said she's had plenty of jobs, but never has she had one that she'll miss so much.

"This is the one job where everybody is like a family," she said.

Downstairs, at the baggage-claim area, the mood also was somber among employees helping passengers find lost luggage. One woman said she couldn't talk about the shutdown without crying. Another just looked down at his shoes when asked about the loss of jobs and shook his head, saying nothing.

Aloha retirees also will be hurt by the shutdown. Steve Brenessel, a pilot who retired in 2004 on medical disability, said he may not be able to get back surgery he needs because of the loss of benefits.

Brenessel got a disability claim check and medical coverage through Aloha.

Losing both will mean he'll have to scramble to find some income.

"I wasn't ready for it, but I expected it," he said.

Opiopio, the 30-year veteran of Aloha Airlines, said she is also worried about losing her medical coverage. She said health insurance is the main reason she will "pound the pavement" for a new job as soon as she can. She added, with a weak laugh, that it will be hard to stop herself from driving to the airport this morning — and instead line up at the unemployment office.