on april 2, 2008, ata declared bankruptcy and ceased all operations. this sudden end came about after fedex abruptly canceled ata's longstanding military charter contract. combined with a significant increase in the price of jet fuel, ata did not have enough capital to stay in business. it was the third of four u.s. airlines to announce a complete shut down in the week of march 30, 2008 after aloha airlines did so on march 30, minnesota-based charter champion air did so march 31, and skybus airlines terminated service on april 5. the shutdown of ata took effect at 4:00 am edt, thursday april 3, 2008, although some flights were airborne at the time and continued to their destinations, with the final arrival being ata flight 4586 from honolulu to phoenix, which landed at 8:46 am, mst, or seven hours and 46 minutes after the announced shutdown. at the time of the shutdown ata employed around 2,300 people all of whom were permanently laid off. according to press reports, up to 10,000 passengers were affected and many of them had to scramble for help on several airlines. most of them, however, had to pay for new tickets.