HONOLULU -- Since Alaska Airlines announced a deal to buy Hawaiian Airlines last December, the two carriers are planning ahead for the integration while they work with the U.S. Department Justice to seal the deal.
They want to hit the ground running should the DOJ approve the combination.
"We're hopeful that the Department of Justice will grant that approval. We're working very closely with them and certainly very respectful of the process and the reviews they have to conduct," Joe Sprague, Alaska Airlines' regional president for Hawaii and the Pacific, said Tuesday at the Travel Weekly Hawaii Leadership Forum. They recently entered into a timing agreement with the DOJ that will allow 90 days to conduct a review, so they expect to know more this summer.
Though the JetBlue-Spirit merger was defeated, they are confident that things will move forward for Alaska-Hawaiian as planned. "Every case has to be judged on its own merits. We obviously wouldn't have embarked on this path if we didn't feel there was a very strong argument for this transaction," said Avi Mannis, Hawaiian's executive vice president and chief marketing officer.
Alaska and Hawaiian see benefits for their respective markets, including scaling up to help them better compete with United, Delta, American and Southwest. They also reiterated that they want to keep the brands separate under one operation.
"When we in Alaska started to think about this possible transaction, we thought a lot about the different strengths that Hawaiian Airlines has," said Sprague. "We saw the strength of the brand, not just here in Hawaii but also in California."
He added that Alaska Airlines wants to keep the Hawaii interisland schedule the same, knowing how important it is to serve the island communities.
Hawaiian's Boeing 787 debut
Hawaiian recently introduced its new flagship aircraft, the Boeing 787, which goes into commercial service this month. Mannis and Sprague are excited by the new 787 and they're looking forward to its addition. They also anticipate that Boeing will get past its troubles.
"Obviously, there's work to be done. Boeing is an incredibly important supplier to us, to Alaska, to other airlines," said Mannis.
Sprague added, "They have to get better. The quality of their production has to improve. I believe that the level of scrutiny that they're under right now is going to force things to get better. And I know that there are many, many men and women at Boeing that want just that. They want to get back to their rightful place as a manufacturer of very high-quality airplanes."
With the merger, Alaska Airlines will be acquiring widebody aircraft capable of long-haul, international flights. Sprague would not say whether that's something Alaska is interested in pursuing.
"I will tell you that maintaining a strong element of widebody service to bringing visitors to Hawaii, that is something we will commit to. Beyond that, that's something we're still evaluating," said Sprague.