• by Tanya Gazdik , September 18, 2024

Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines closed their planned $1.9 billion merger after it was cleared by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

“The DOT said the airlines must ensure that miles earned in the HawaiianMiles and Alaska Mileage Plan programs before the creation of a new, combined loyalty point system will not expire and that they can transfer at a 1-to-1 ratio,” according to CNBC.

The airlines agreed to maintain key Hawaiian routes and adopt consumer protections include protecting the value of frequent flyer rewards under an agreement that will last six years.

“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,” according to Reuters. 

There are positives for both airlines. 

“The deal will vault Alaska to a much larger fleet and expand its international reach,” according to The Seattle Times. “Alaska currently flies 737 MAXs to Mexico and Central America. Hawaiian flies across the Pacific Ocean, using long-haul widebody jets to destinations in Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.”

Alaska Airlines said in a statement it expects the merger to be completed “in the coming days.”

“Hawaiian Airlines also agreed to adopt Alaska Airlines’ policies of guaranteeing family seating with additional fees and providing refunds for significant flight delays or cancellations, the agency said,” according to Forbes.

Henry Harteveldt, founder of Atmosphere Research, a travel industry market research firm, said that as Alaska takes ownership of Hawaiian’s budding fleet of Boeing 787 widebody jets, those will become the “flagship of the airline” that could be used for Alaska long-haul flights out of Seattle.

“There’s the potential a few years from now that we could see Alaska order more 787s and use those and the Hawaiian planes to fly to destinations in Europe and Asia from Seattle,” he told The Seattle Times. 

Airline mergers are rare. 

JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines canceled their $3.8 billion merger agreement in March 2024 due to a number of regulatory and legal challenges.