HONOLULU (KHON2) — We may soon know the fate of the buyout of Hawaiian Airlines by Alaska Airlines. The review period is scheduled to end at 6 p.m. Monday.
The Department of Justice could either approve or block the deal after that.
The review period for Alaska airlines buyout of Hawaiian has been extended 3 times. That’s left everyone asking, “what’s the hold up?”
“My first thought is there’s some disagreement within the group” said Peter Forman, aviation analyst. “Some people are for, some people are against, and they’ve got to sort it out.”
There is a lot to sort out, but bottom line — Forman said- this deal is a good thing.
“The knee-jerk reaction of the DOJ would be to say, ‘oh, mergers are bad for competition,’ say no,” said Forman. “And in the way, for example, with the Jetblue and Spirit merger, that one could have actually been bad for competition. So maybe they made the right decision there, but this is a different kettle of fish.”
Different because Forman says Hawaiian and Alaska’s overlap isn’t as much as the proposed merger between Jetblue and Spirit.
The DOJ blocked that proposal, citing concerns that airlines might become too powerful and take away choices from customers.
According to one aviation analytics website, last December, Hawaiian operated 47 routes — 28 of them on the continental US. Alaska serviced 12 of those routes.
Forman worries more about the interisland travel market.
“If it ends up going the way that Southwest does on the mainland, that’s problematic for local people because tickets purchased close to departure date would definitely go quite a bit higher,” said Forman.
Whatever does happen, there are a lot of people waiting for the DOJ’s ruling.
“It’s definitely a nail biter,” said Forman.
The time period for the DOJ to complete its regulatory investigation of the proposed combination of Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines under the HSR Act has expired, per Alaska Airlines.