In the 1980s, the airline expanded service to Southern California; Oakland, Calif.; San Jose, Calif.;
Spokane; Boise, Idaho; Phoenix; and Tucson, Ariz. Service also resumed to Nome and Kotzebue, Alaska. It acquired Horizon Air, a small regional carrier, in 1985.
By the turn of the century, Alaska Air added yet more destinations: Boston; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Miami; Newark, N.J.; Orlando, Fla.; and Washington, D.C.,
as well as to Hawaii and more places in Mexico.
But the terrorist attacks of 9/11 sent airlines into near collapse. Scores of companies sought protection
in bankruptcy court. Alaska avoided that fate but its top brass engaged in severe cost-cutting and staff reductions. The airline was also struggling with the aftermath of the crash of Flight 261 in January 2000, costing 88 lives. Alaska made
sweeping reforms of its maintenance and safety procedures.
Lately, Delta Air Lines has challenged Alaska for customers in Seattle. So Alaska can’t
take anything for granted.
Seattle has ties to Alaska going back to 1897, when the city made itself the hub for fortune seekers setting off for the
Klondike gold rush, at the same time making us the premier business city in the Northwest. (Longtime readers may recall that I recounted how one of my forebears lost the family Bible in the rush but never got rich).
Those ties continue beyond the airline. The Northwest Seaport Alliance (the merger of the seaports of Seattle and Tacoma) handles enormous cargo to and from
Alaska.
As my colleague Dominic Gates reported, Hawaiian Airlines has yet to recover from the loss of passengers caused by the pandemic. The fire on Maui
made the situation worse, and the company faced the need to repair the engines on its fleet of Airbus A321neo jets. Hawaiian lost $240 million this past year and could lose $300 million this year.
Conversely, Alaska Air Group is in a strong position. Shane Tackett, the company’s chief financial officer, told Wall Street analysts that Honolulu
“has the potential over time to approach Seattle in terms of revenue.”
In addition, Alaska’s top executives said they’d seek to
execute the merger by keeping the two airline brands separate, negotiating a single contract with unions and operating the combined airliner fleet as one.
If regulators approve the merger, it will give Alaska Air far greater reach — to Tokyo; Sydney; Seoul, South Korea; and Auckland, New Zealand.
Approval isn’t a given, although many analysts say it stands a good chance.
But over recent decades, major airlines such as TWA, Northwest, US Airways and Continental have been gobbled up in mergers and acquisitions. The result is
four giants, American, Delta, Southwest and United, with commanding market share. Alaska is the fifth largest, which won’t change if the Hawaiian merger goes through.
The Biden administration has taken a hard stance on antitrust and might do so on Alaska’s deal.
If the merger is approved, Alaska will be a stronger competitor against the “big four.”
And a certain poetry will result: the 49th (Alaska) and 50th (Hawaii) states joined in a single airline.