Alaska Air Group, Inc. and Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. have agreed to Alaska Airlines acquiring Hawaiian Airlines for $18 a share in cash, with a transaction value of approximately $1.9 billion, including debt.
Alaska offers a daily nonstop flight to and from Philadelphia and Baltimore-Washington. American also offers a nonstop flight to and from Philadelphia. Hawaiian has Honolulu service from New York City. Both airlines were born in states that depend on airline service.
Other airline bidders for Hawaiian are unlikely for antitrust reasons. The four largest US airlines, United, American, Delta, and Southwest, account for the lion’s share of the domestic market.
The airlines will move to one operating system but will retain their separate identities. Alaska is based in Seattle, while Hawaiian is headquartered in Honolulu. The merger could be completed in the early part of 2024.
Hawaiian has more long-haul flights than Alaska, with service to the South Pacific and Far East. The Hawaii-based airline has been struggling with competition from Southwest Airlines, which entered the West Coast to Hawaii market a few years ago. Alaska also battles Southwest in its West Coast stronghold. Southwest offers connecting service to Honolulu from Baltimore-Washington.
Both airlines are nine decades old and rank near the top among U.S. airlines in customer service performance. The combined airlines fly nearly 55 million passengers a year which would make the combined carriers the fifth largest U.S.-based airline by a wide margin.
