Alaska Airlines And Hawaiian Airlines Have Agreed To Merge             An email arrived in my mailbox today from the CEO and President of Alaska Airlines, Ben Minicucci, announcing the $1.9B deal. This was not...

Alaska Airlines And Hawaiian Airlines Have Agreed To Merge

 

 

 

 

 

 

An email arrived in my mailbox today from the CEO and President of Alaska Airlines, Ben Minicucci, announcing the $1.9B deal. This was not a news I expected at all. It took myself and many of my fellow avgeeks totally by surprise. The first paragraph read:

Today is a historic day for Alaska Airlines. As you are one of our most loyal guests, I want to share the news personally that Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines have reached an agreement to combine, expanding service and benefits for our guests, opportunity for our employees, and continued investment in the community.

This is of course subject to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s approval. They will determine if the marriage will create a monopoly on select routes, thus causing increased fares. Also, other airlines serving the same airports and markets will also complain.

Hawaiian Airlines will keep its identity for which I’m glad as the Hawaiian Airlines represents Hawaii and its people. The Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan frequent flyer program will be the dominant one having the HawaiianMiles program absorbed into it.

So you will see as an example, AS8924 operated by Hawaiian Airlines when you buy a ticket on a plane that is being flown by Hawaiian Airlines.

Airline Alliances

Airline mergers create strange bedfellows and this one is no different. Alaska Airlines is a part of the  oneworld alliance, Hawaiian Airlines is not a part of any airline alliances, so now when you fly the Hawaiian Airlines brand, you’ll get Alaska Airlines miles which you can use on oneworld partner airlines, such as American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, Finnair, Qatar Airways, Qantas, etc.

Here’s a look at all the partners between the two airlines

Alaska Airline Partners

oneworld Alliance Airline Partners American Airlines British Airways Cathay Pacific Airways Fiji Airways Finnair  Iberia Japan Airlines Malaysia Airlines Qantas Qatar Royal Air Maroc Royal Jordanian SriLankan Airlines Earn and Redeem Miles Partners Aer Lingus Air Tahiti Nui Condor El Al Israel Airlines Hainan Airways Icelandair Korean Air (SkyTeam) LATAM Airlines Ravn Alaska Singapore Airlines (Star Alliance) STARLUX Airlines Earn Miles Partners Bahamasair Cape Air Kenmore Air Mokulele Airlines Souther Airways Express

You can see a full list of all current Alaska Airlines partners.

Hawaiian Airlines Airline Partners

As Hawaiian Airlines had no major airline alliance partners, they were free to align with whomever complemented their network. i.e. took their passengers to places that Hawaiian did not serve. You can see that from the list below

jetBlue (no major alliance) Japan Airlines (oneworld) Korean Air (SkyTeam) Virgin Atlantic Airways (SkyTeam)  Virgin Australia (no major alliance)

You can see a full list of all current Hawaiian Airlines partners.

There’s only two partner overlap and that’s Korean Air (SkyTeam) and Japan Airlines (oneworld). Airlines are allowed to keep existing partners when they join an alliance, depending on the relationship. If you notice Singapore Airlines is a Star Alliance partner and hae been a long time partner with Alaska Airlines who is oneworld alliance.

They may either jettison Mokulele Airlines or buy them outright to keep serving the smaller cities that Hawaiian Airlines does not serve.

Aircraft

Hawaiian Airlines flies, the following aircraft types:

Airbus A330 Airbus A321neo Boeing 717 (for the intra-Hawaiian routes) Boeing 787 (will be introduced in 2024)

You can see the full Hawaiian Airlines fleet here.

Alaska Airlines flies the following aircraft types:

Boeing 737-700 Boeing 737-800 Boeing 737-900 Boeing 737-900ER Boeing 737-9 MAX Embraer 175 (operated by Horizon Air)

They recently (2023) got rid of the last Airbus aircraft they had from the merger with Virgin America a few years back.

You can see the full Alaska Airlines fleet here.

Destinations

Both airlines have a relatively small footprint compared to other airlines. Neither flies to Europe or the Middle East. Alaska does not do Asia, nor the South Pacific, but Hawaiian Airlines does. Alaska does Canada, Central America, The Caribbean and Mexico, Hawaiian Airlines does not. There are some overlaps within the U.S., but not too many, so there should not be too many government hurdles.

Hawaiian Airlines (HA), brings a lot to the table in terms of route network as now Alaska Airlines can say it flies to Asia, the South Pacific and Australia. 

Let’s take a look at where they fly

Where Does Alaska Airlines Fly?

Alaska Airlines flies to the following international cities, none of which are served by Hawaiian Airlines:

Nassau, Bahamas (NAS) Belize City, Belize (BZE) Calgary, AB Canada (YYC) Edmonton, AB Canada (YEG) Kelowna, BC Canada (YLW) Vancouver, BC Canada (YVR) Victoria, BC Canada (YYJ) Liberia, Costa Rica (LIR) San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO) Guatemala City, Guatemala (GUA) Cabo San Lucas, Mexico (SJD) Cancun, Mexico (CUN) Guadalajara, Mexico (GDL) Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, Mexico (ZIH) Loreto, Mexico (LTO) Manzanillo, Mexico (ZLO) Mazatlan, Mexico (MZT) Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (PVR)

 

Where Does Hawaiian Airlines Fly?

Hawaiian Airlines flies to the following U.S. cities:

Austin, TX (AUS) Boston, MA (BOS) Las Vegas, NV (LAS) Long Beach, CA (LBG) [not served by Alaska Airlines] Los Angeles, CA (LAX) New York, NY (JFK) Oakland, CA (OAK) Ontario, CA (ONT) Phoenix, AZ (PHX) Portland, OR (PDX) Sacramento, CA (SMF) San Diego, CA (SAN) San Francisco, CA (SFO) San Jose, CA (SJC) Seattle, WA (SEA)

Hawaiian Airlines flies to the following international cities; none of which are served by Alaska Airlines:

Auckland, New Zealand (AKL) Cook Islands Fukuoka, Japan (FUK) Osaka Pago Pago Papeete (PPT) Sapporo, Japan Seoul, South Korea (ICN) Sydney, Australia (SYD) Tokyo-Narita (NRT)

 

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