Since my post one year ago first covering this airline merger, Alaska finally completed their acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines. Due to this, I felt inspired by YouTube Channel Lousiana Rail Productions’ videos about the newly formed CPKC (Canadian Pacific Kansas City) Railway and decided to write more about the Alaska Hawaiian merger. So stay tuned for more of these. In this post, we will go over network changes, hub networks and the impact on competition.
Network Changes
As the merger consummated on September 18th, there were executive changes that were made to streamline operations. First off, Joe Sprague who was once the president of Hawaii/Pacific operations for Alaska was appointed as the interim CEO for Hawaiian Airlines. Despite this, Alaska and Hawaiian have two separate Air Operator’s Certificates (AOC) and the next step in the integration process is to have a single AOC between the two airlines. In the meantime, while the brands remain separate there have already been changes within the combined network. First off, Hawaiian Airlines starting June 12th, 2025 will no longer fly from San Diego to Kahului and Alaska Airlines will take over those routes.
As a result, Alaska reduced frequencies between Seattle and Honolulu from five to four daily flights starting April 22. This would allow Hawaiian to add a second widebody flight between Seattle and Honolulu. Lastly, Alaska and Hawaiian recently announced a service between Seattle/Portland and Australia/New Zealand via Honolulu. Passengers would fly from Seattle and Portland on Alaska and then in Honolulu, transfer to a Hawaiian Airlines A330. All of this is to help balance their network by implementing new hub operations.
Alaska Hub Operations
With all of these moves in place, it allows the combined network to maintain frequencies as while consolidating operations at the same time. These moves allow Hawaiian to strengthen their presence in Seattle while also making Honolulu the combined network’s second largest hub. This would allow Alaska/Hawaiian to establish 7 key hubs:
Seattle: Primary Mainland Hub
Honolulu: Second-largest Pacific hub, anchoring Pacific operations
Los Angeles: Southern California gateway
San Francisco: Northern California hub
Portland: Pacific Northwest operations
San Diego: Second Southern California base
Anchorage: Alaska gateway
By establishing these 7 hubs, Alaska/Hawaiian Airlines are able to have stopgap options available for travelers before the carriers are under a single AOC. For example, Qantas can use the merger as an opportunity to establish a new service between Seattle/Portland and Australia. This would allow Alaska and their Oneworld partners help assert the west coast as a major network to compete with other carriers. But the question is, how will the industry react to this?
Impact on Competition
With this merger, the impact it will have on the industry will be significant. In a way, this is similar to how the CPKC merger had an impact on expanding competing rail services into Mexico. If you want to learn more about it, please see this video from Louisiana Rail Productions below about CPKC’s merger impact on the Meridian Speedway.
Similar to how railroads are introducing new intermodal networks to connect to Mexico, Alaska’s merger with Hawaiian is a jolt in the airline industry to increase competition between flights to Hawaii and/or the Pacific. For example, Southwest Airlines announced additional red-eye flights between Las Vegas/Phoenix and the islands. In addition, Southwest will reduce their inter-island service between the islands to allow them to increase frequencies between the mainland US and Hawaii.
Another example of this would be Delta and SkyTeam partner China Airlines increasing frequencies between Seattle and Taipei last July. This was a reaction to Starlux’s own route between the two metroplexes last August. Now with Alaska/Hawaiian in the mix, the combined system can launch a service between Seattle and Taipei on a Boeing 787 to complement Starlux. Travelers would have a lot of options to choose from when it comes to flying from the Pacific Northwest to Asia.
While other airlines are accepting this new reality by increasing frequencies between the west and Hawaii, United Airlines is furious. Last July, the airline had concerns on how the merger would reduce competition by ruining their current partnership with Hawaiian. However, this merger would have a polar opposite effect on competition due to the aforementioned reasons. This is similar to Norfolk Southern’s reaction to CPKC and CSX announcing their joint acquisition of the Meridian and Bigbee shortline railroad on how the latter would have access to the Meridian Speedway. In this case, United much like NS, is upset about having to deal with this new juggernaut and how it threatens United’s strength with the mainland to Hawaii market. This could force United to partner with a carrier such as Southwest to increase service to the islands similar to how American partners with Alaska. And considering how US low-cost carriers are all changing their models, it would be a natural next step. All in all, the Alaska-Hawaiian combination will have a big impact on how the airline industry will change this decade.
Conclusion
In summary, in the few months since the merger was consummated, the US airline industry, was given a big wakeup call on how the market will evolve. This is an exciting time to follow the airline industry and I hope Alaska and Hawaiian will make the industry change for the better. But what do you guys think? Is Alaska/Hawaiian the shot in the arm that the industry needs or will it do more harm than good? Be sure to let me know in the comments down below and keep looking to the sky!
Great blog, Jam! So many interesting possibilities for Pacific Rim airlinks here! As a bonus, anything that causes United Airlines grief is fine by me!!