Federal regulators have approved the transfer of Hawaiian Airlines’ international routes to its new parent company, Alaska Air Group, as the two carriers continue their merger.
The U.S. Department of Transportation cleared Alaska to take over the routes in a filing issued on July 14. According to the documents, Hawaiian has approval to operate flights to any country that has an Open Skies Agreement with the United States.
Hawaiian currently has international routes to Papeete, Tahiti; Auckland, New Zealand; Sydney, Australia; Seoul, South Korea; and three cities in Japan: Osaka, Fukuoka, and Tokyo.
The transfer of Hawaiian’s routes to Alaska is the next step forward in combining the two carriers’ operations under the merger agreement that was first announced in December 2023.
The two carriers stated that with the transfer and when the merger is complete, they “will be able to invest in new products and services and expand its domestic and international services in competition with the Big Four airlines, including launching new routes that neither carrier alone can serve today,” according to the DOT filing.
Alaska Air Group has already begun an international expansion by launching new routes operated by Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska from Seattle. The first of those flights, a route aboard Hawaiian Airlines from Seattle to Tokyo, launched in May. Forthcoming international routes from the West Coast hub include a new Hawaiian flight to Seoul, South Korea, set to begin in September and new nonstop service to Rome in 2026 that is still awaiting final approval from regulators.
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