The Alaska-Hawaiian acquisition is complete. What does it mean for Alaskans?

But what do we know about what the deal means for travelers in Hawaii and Alaska? Scott McMurren, who writes the Alaska Travelgram: I think that the big benefit for Alaskans is access to Hawaiian’s international routes. Pago Pago in American Samoa, they also go to Tahiti, Auckland and Sydney. And then also, Hawaiian flies to four airports in Japan, and also to Seoul, South Korea. Those are, to me, the nuggets of this Hawaiian deal for Alaskans.

I spoke with Hawaii Public Radio reporter Catherine Cruz, who’s been covering this issue and met with Hawaiian’s CEO earlier this week. She said Hawaiians are apprehensive about the acquisition.We have seen many airlines go out of business. And it’s not pretty, you know, from the loss of jobs with pilots and flight attendants and ground crew or cargo, you know, call centers, it’s tough. And as an island state, we depend on our harbors and our airports. There are, they are our lifelines.

Many of our workers head to the neighbor islands for construction jobs. So any loss of service is a big one. There’s also concern about folks often fly to Honolulu for medical reasons, for doctor’s appointments, that kind of thing. So we really are the lifeline. Alaska Airlines has said it will keep the Hawaiian brand, what’s holding Alaska Airlines to this commitment?The regulators have weighed in, our governor has weighed in.

Obviously the hoteliers want to see their hotels filled, maybe residents don’t want to see 10 million visitors, like what we saw just before the pandemic. So, yeah, there needs to be a balance. There is an effort to try and manage the visitor numbers. So you know, you have to strike a balance between providing the transportation of service between the different islands and keeping our economy pumping.

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