Alaska Airlines is buying Hawaiian Airlines for $1.9 Billion
Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines said on Sunday that they would combine, the latest U.S. airlines seeking to grow and compete via merger.
Under the agreement, Alaska Airlines would acquire Hawaiian for $18 per share, or roughly $1.9 billion.
In a joint announcement, the airlines said that the merger would allow both carriers to compete effectively across the U.S. and globally while expanding destinations and entrenching the combined carrier on the West Coast.
Both airlines’ brands would continue to exist “on a single operating platform,” the carriers said, with a single loyalty program. It was not immediately clear what parts of the airlines brands and operations would be kept separate and which would be combined, or how the differentiated brands could function as an integrated operational entity. In a presentation to investors, the airlines predicted run-rate synergies of approximately $235 million.
The combined entity would be based in Alaska Airlines’ headquarters of Seattle, with Honolulu as a key hub.
This combination is an exciting next step in our collective journey to provide a better travel experience for our guests and expand options for West Coast and Hawai’i travelers,” Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci said in a statement.
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Minicucci would lead the combined entity, the airlines said.
The carrier would be the fifth-largest in the U.S. in terms of fleet size, with 365 aircraft.
Should the pending merger of JetBlue and Spirit be approved in federal antitrust court, the combined Alaska-JetBlue would drop to the sixth largest; Spirit will have 204 aircraft at the end of 2023, while JetBlue had 296 as of the end of the third quarter, according to both respective airlines.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
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