While the Aloha Airlines cargo division is up and flying, the actual sale of the unit is still underway.

There are still a lot of details to iron out, plus several unions with some big questions, but it appears much of Aloha will live on.

The cargo sale is set to officially close within two weeks, with buyer Saltchuk -- the owner of Young Brothers -- paying more than $10 million. The sale came at the urging of Sen. Dan Inouye after negotiations had fallen apart earlier this week.

Today Gov. Linda Lingle defended her wait-and-see approach.

"I just had a strong feeling that the market was going to sort this out,” Lingle said. “I appreciate Sen. Inouye becoming involved and making a call, that was helpful, but I was confident all along that the market would sort it out it would create opportunities."

Still at issue, however, is the apparent nonunion status employees would have under this buyer and that of the contract services division.

Both the airline and machinists unions say they have heard nothing from the companies or trustee.

"We'd like to hire local,” said Tim Engle of Saltchuk. “We'd certainly love to have the existing pilot group that's been flying air cargo to continue to do so, but that is up to current management and what they decide on the hiring practices."

Aloha pilots are flying the cargo planes but a union representative said the seniority list and schedules are not being honored. They say if this continues expect further legal filings.

Pacific Air Cargo has officially bought and paid for the contract services division, which takes care of lobby, baggage and ground jobs for about a dozen airlines. many of the 900 employees are in the midst of their transition to the new company.

the dozen or so airlines that utilized aloha's grounds services are renewing their contracts though just one airline chose to bring in employees from the mainland to do the jobs.