Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Alaska Airlines has cleared a major hurdle in its plan to purchase rival Hawaiian Airlines in a $1.9 billion deal. (Photo by Mario Tama) E ight months after Alaska Airlines announced it was acquiring struggling rival Hawaiian Airlines in an all-cash transaction valued at $1.
9 billion, the deal appears to have cleared regulators at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
In a statement released Monday, Alaska Airlines said that the period for antitrust regulators to investigate the merger ended without the agency filing a lawsuit to block the deal. “This is a significant milestone in the process to join our airlines,” the carrier said, noting that it had worked closely with Hawaii’s Attorney General “to reinforce and expand upon our commitments for the future of Hawaiian Airlines and to Hawai‘i consumers.” Before the deal can close, it must now pass scrutiny from the U.
S. Department of Transportation (DOT). It wasn’t immediately clear how long that would take.
Neither the DOJ nor DOT immediately responded to Forbes ’ requests for comment on Tuesday. Historically, the airline industry has tended to drift toward consolidation. The combination of Alaska Airlines, North America’s sixth largest carrier based on passenger volume, and Hawaiian Airlines, currently the continent’s sixteenth largest, would become the largest consolidation of U.
S. airlines since Alaska acquired Virgin America for about $4 billion in 2.