Alaska Airlines offers $1.9B for Hawaii carrier
Would add stops in islands
Alaska Airlines is ready to buy Hawaiian Airlines, debt and all, for $1.9 billion, the carriers said Sunday.
The deal would keep both carriers’ brands intact while expanding the fifth-largest U.S. airline to a 365-plane fleet and joining American Airlines, British Airways and Cathay Pacific in the oneworld Alliance loyalty program.
Combining the two networks would triple the number of one-stop destinations that Hawaiian residents can reach in North America and offer more connectivity to 138 destinations overall, the airlines said in a joint statement. The move maintains Honolulu as a hub and would include expanded service between Hawaii and the Continental U.S., along with new connections to Asia and throughout the Pacific.
The carriers said they were “committed to maintaining and growing” Hawaii’s union-represented workforce. The flight attendants’ union said it would review the deal before deciding whether to support it.
“Our first priority is to determine whether this merger will improve conditions for flight attendants just like the benefits the companies have described for shareholders and consumers,” said the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO, which represents 6,800 Alaska Airlines and 2,200 Hawaiian Airlines flight attendants.
The Seattle-based combined company will be helmed by Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci, who called the combination “an exciting next step in our collective journey to provide a better travel experience for our guests and expand options for West Coast and Hawaii travelers.”
Alaska Airlines is offering $18 cash per share for Hawaiian Airlines, taking on the company’s net $900 million in debt. Hawaiian Airlines’ stock at Friday’s close was $4.86 per share.
The 49th and 50th states to join the U.S. are each “uniquely reliant upon air travel,” the airlines said, and their combination will build on the more than 90 years of tenure each has amassed.
The merger, which would take 12 to 18 months to close, is subject to approval by each airlines’ board, as well as the shareholders of Hawaiian Holdings. U.S. regulators, who are already pushing back against consolidation elsewhere in the airline industry, must also greenlight the deal.
Pope Francis skipped his traditional Sunday appearance at a window over St. Peter’s Square as he continues battling an illness.
Francis, who turns 87 later this month, said he was suffering from infectious bronchitis. The pope’s medical diagnosis has changed multiple times in the past week, from flu-like symptoms to lung inflammation to bronchitis.
The pontiff also skipped a planned appearance at the United Nations climate conference, COP28, in Dubai. His doctors advised him to remain in the Vatican.
While Francis didn’t make his weekly appearance at the window, he still prepared remarks. The speech was read on TV by a priest sitting next to Francis.
“Dear brothers and sisters, good day. Also today, I won’t be able to read everything. I’m getting better, but the voice still isn’t,” the pope said before passing the mic to the priest.
Francis first fell ill last weekend and responded by canceling his scheduled audiences on Nov. 25. At the time, the Vatican said he had a light flu and results of a CT scan were negative.
The next day, the pope missed his Sunday speech and said he was suffering from lung inflammation. Francis had part of one of his lungs surgically removed when he was a young man in Argentina.
At the time, the pope still planned to attend COP28, but on Tuesday he changed course. In a statement announcing that decision, his doctors said the pope was battling “the flu and respiratory tract inflammation.”
Francis has struggled with bronchitis before. He was hospitalized in Rome for three days in March to battle the illness. He eventually emerged to joke that he was “still alive.”