Think of it as a barnstorming tour.
Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci and Hawaiian Airlines CEO Peter Ingram made the rounds in Hawaii to the business community and various Chambers of Commerce to discuss the proposed $1.9 billion merger between the two airlines.
The merger still has to pass government regulations.
The CEOs said a combined company will mean more routes, more lounges and more perks.
"Now you can use those miles on a larger network. Now you’ve chosen what miles on OneWorld and really the strength of that combined loyalty program is going to be really really powerful for our guests from here in Hawaii,” Ingram said. "All those cities that Alaska’s network, the vast, vast, vast majority of those we’ll be able to go to now. All those big cities that we don’t fly to nonstop, those are going to be available with a combined network."
"Your elite status gets recognized at that level at that highest tier level and you have access to not only Alaska lounges but all 700 OneWorld lounges around the world," Minicucci said.
OneWorld is the global alliance of more than a dozen airlines.
Alaska Airlines said a merger would help it better compete with the Big Four airlines.
Executives for both airlines said, however, that the combination is still in the planning stages and they must figure out such things as combining reservation systems and staff.
"It’ll be a big, big operation in Honolulu, where we’ll need everything that’s required here today. Our idea just to be clear is to grow this pie, not to keep it the same," Minicucci said. "And when you combine both networks, the synergies will allow, like Peter was saying, there will be more opportunity to do more things, so the pie is going to grow. So, we see a big presence here. Now, what exactly does the (organizational) structure look like? Most of the operations personnel of course we’ll need. The question is what the back office-support will be. Obviously, there’s a duplication in both companies. We’re going to work through that whole process. We’re going to be extremely communicative in terms of what our progress is."
Minicucci said the debacle of last month’s near-tragedy involving in Alaska Airlines jet and the blown-out door would not impact the merger. Alaska airlines and United Airlines are the only two domestic carriers that use the model of plane in question, the Boeing 737 Max 9.
"The federal authorities have to go through a review process, and that’ll happen over the next six months give or take," Ingram said. "They’re very focused on the integration planning, what we can’t do is actually integrate, we can’t be combining anything yet."
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