Alaska Airlines completes $1.9 billion acquisition of Hawaiian Story by Reuters

[Malcolm]

FILE PHOTO: An Alaska Airlines aircraft flies past the U.S. Capitol before landing at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., January 24, 2022. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo© Thomson Reuters

By David Shepardson

(Reuters) -Alaska Airlines said on Wednesday it had completed its $1.9 billion acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines after reaching an agreement with the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The airlines on Tuesday agreed to maintain key Hawaiian routes and adopt consumer protections under an agreement that will last six years.

 

The Justice Department in August chose not to block the deal that was announced in December by Alaska, the fifth-largest domestic U.S. airline, to merge with Hawaiian, the 10th-largest carrier.

Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci said in an interview that the deal would be good for competition and consumers and would expand access for consumers to both networks and give Alaska access to Hawaiian's fleet of wide-body airplanes.

"It's just a few more arrows in our quiver on how we deploy airplanes across our entire network," Minicucci said. "Putting the right airplane in the right market to deliver the best results for the combined entity."

Minicucci said the airline expects to deliver at least $235 million in run-rate synergies by year three.

The Justice Department has been aggressive under President Joe Biden in blocking airline consolidation. In March, JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines scrapped their $3.8 billion merger agreement after a U.S. judge blocked the deal in January on anticompetition concerns following a Justice Department lawsuit.

 

Related video: Alaska Airlines CEO on Hawaiian merger: It's pro-consumer and pro-competition (CNBC)

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The agency also successfully challenged a joint venture that American and JetBlue entered into in 2020, called the "Northeast Alliance," for flights in and out of New York City and Boston.

The Transportation Department said Alaska and Hawaiian agreed to protect the value of frequent flyer rewards, maintain existing service on key Hawaiian routes to the continental United States and inter-island regions, ensure competitive access at the Honolulu airport and provide travel credits or frequent flyer miles for disruptions that are the fault of the airline.

Hawaiian Airlines’ stock will be de-listed and will cease trading on the Nasdaq on Wednesday, Alaska said in a statement. The combined organization will continue to trade under the ALK ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange.

[Malcolm]

Quite a mix of aircraft,, Hawaiian fleet is not a good match to the Alaskan fleet. I wonder how this will evolve?  Wet Lease, code share or ???

Information about the planes we fly - Alaska Airlines

Hawaiian airline fleet

https://www.hawaiianairlines.com/our-services/at-the-airport/our-fleet

[mo32a]

From the title of the thread, I thought Alaska had paid 1.9 billion for a story.

[deicer]

22 hours ago, Malcolm said:

Quite a mix of aircraft,, Hawaiian fleet is not a good match to the Alaskan fleet. I wonder how this will evolve?  Wet Lease, code share or ???

Information about the planes we fly - Alaska Airlines

Hawaiian airline fleet

https://www.hawaiianairlines.com/our-services/at-the-airport/our-fleet

Maybe Alaska will be exposed to the benefits of Airbus vs Boeing leading to a fleet renewal?

[J.O.]

Alaska already had the AIrbus experience when they acquired Virgin America. They kept the A320s initially with a plan to phase them out as the leases expired. When COVID hit, they parked the fleet with 12 of them being immediately retired and the remaining 6 or so unlikely to ever return to service.