MilesBuzz! - Hawaiian & Aloha Airlines Announcement: Merger?

http://www.thehawaiichannel.com/hon/money/stories/money-113179620011218-211251.html

If it is indeed a merger, I think this would mean that United frequent flyers would be most affected, as Hawaiian would be the "captain" of this merger, and the Aloha/United partnership would fall by the way-side in favor of the Hawaiian/American, Hawaiian/Northwest, Hawaiian/Continental etc. partnerships.

Too bad....5000 UA MP miles for an Aloha inter-island flight is a great deal -- would hate to see it go.

anthony-

Are Northwest and American the only other airlines w/ a 5000 mile interisland reward?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Mileage Schemer:
anthony-

Are Northwest and American the only other airlines w/ a 5000 mile interisland reward?</font>

From what I know, yes, only AA and NW have 5000 mile awards on HA. UA is the only airline with an award on AQ (Aloha). CO also has an inter-island award with HA, but it is http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsdown.gif10000 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsdown.gif miles. Some other airlines have code-share partnerships with HA and AQ.

This may come a little out of the blue, but I've been hearing that this might be linked with Coleman Andrews, Greg Brenneman and the Texas-Pacific group.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by B747-437B:
This may come a little out of the blue, but I've been hearing that this might be linked with Coleman Andrews, Greg Brenneman and the Texas-Pacific group. </font>

At the bottom of the linked article about the impending announcement, there is a link to another article entitled Exec Likely to Run Merged Airline" (http://www.thehawaiichannel.com/hon/money/stories/money-113219220011219-001223.html). The article is a bio about Greg Brenneman.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by anthonyanthony:
At the bottom of the linked article about the impending announcement, there is a link to another article entitled Exec Likely to Run Merged Airline" (http://www.thehawaiichannel.com/hon/money/stories/money-113219220011219-001223.html). The article is a bio about Greg Brenneman.</font>

Well then I guess the cat is out of the bag. I've known for a while about Coleman and Greg working together on an airline project, but wasn't sure which one it was. This would clear up a lot of things, and definitely lends legitimacy to the story.

Interesting link here is David Bonderman's recent financial stake in Ansett Australia together with Bill Franke. Brenneman and Bonderman go back a long way - we may see an Australian link somewhere before this story is finished.

[This message has been edited by B747-437B (edited 12-19-2001).]

I'm glad I booked (and have the tickets) for my interisland award for a mere 5K UA pts. Thanks to this board or I would have never known, I'm on CO on the way there.

Alaska Airlines allows an inter-island ticket on HA, but it's for 10K miles.

i like the statement in the article:

"it's more convoluted than that"

hawaiian recently transitioned to an all 717 fleet. aloha has some ETOPS 737-800's but have they modernized their interisland fleet? perhaps they are looking to truly dominate the hawaiian market? here's my theory:

HA 767's in addition to NW and CO flights to the mainland, all operating under 3 way code share (HA, NW, and CO flight numbers on all flights).

HA 717's as primary inter-island service. Don't they have options yet to exercise?

EX-AQ ETOPS 737's to operate long, thin flights into south pacific, in conjunction w/ CO Micronesia

low cycle EX-AQ 737 classics to operate interisland cargo

could be a way for the wings alliance to knock UA off their perch as the dominant carrier to Hawaii...

just a theory, based on no facts at all...

Yep, it is official!

---

Airline Industry Leader Greg Brenneman to Head Combined Company

In a move designed to ensure the continued viability of Hawaii's interisland air service in a changing marketplace, Aloha Airgroup, Inc. and Hawaiian Airlines, Inc. (AMEX:HA - news; PCX:HA) today agreed to merge Hawaii's two air carriers under a new holding company, Aloha Holdings, Inc.

The new company will be headed by Greg Brenneman, the former president and chief operating officer of Continental Airlines, who for six years helped lead that carrier's spectacular turnaround. Brenneman will serve as chairman and chief executive officer of Aloha Holdings, Inc., which will be a public company traded as Hawaiian Airlines under the ticker symbol HA on the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) and the Pacific Stock Exchange (PCX).

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum109/HTML/003431.html

It's official that they are merging...
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/011219/n19204646_2.html

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Sorry, but I cannot resist, anthonyanthony, but have you thought of merging your username to a single "anthony" or "AAnthony"? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Shareholder:
Sorry, but I cannot resist, anthonyanthony, but have you thought of merging your username to a single "anthony" or "AAnthony"? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif</font>

I'd love to, but another entity has a controlling interest in the name "anthony" here on Flyertalk, and as this entity appears to be wholly inactive, cannot be approached for said merger propositions. A name change resulting from the potential merger would be blocked by overriding administrative rules, anyhoo http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

the merger (of Anthony and AnthonyAnthony)would probably be ruled anti-competetive, as it would eliminate one Anthony from the market. Unless you could show that the other Anthony would fold without your assistance, of course... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

I would think there would, or should, be serious anti-trust concerns as far as the interisland routes go.

Would also seem to create a lot of redundancies at HQ level that'd put people out of work in Honolulu.

The merged airline also would likely want to leverage control of interisland routes as a "competitive" advantage to draw business on its own routes to the mainland. I would expect less-generous FF partner deals across the board.

I think the DOJ ought to require some significant divestitures here.

Heck. Does that mean I cannot continue to boycott Hawaiian Air for flying us into a hurricane without telling us??

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by RustyC:
I would think there would, or should, be serious anti-trust concerns as far as the interisland routes go.</font>

I don't think that will be a problem. Sure -- in the short term there will be less competition. But the important anti-monopoly question that will be asked is, is there anything to stop another competitor from starting up. The answer is no -- Hawaii has seen more than a few airlines try to compete against the heavyweights Hawaiian and Aloha in the inter-island market (Mid-Pacific in the 80s and Mahalo Airlines in the 90s come to mind). More competition will come, especially now. Pacific Wings is a third inter-island carrier currently in business serving niche routes like HNL-OGG/Kapalua/Hana for less than $100. They may benefit and expand from this merger, or at least keep "Alohawaiian's" prices in check.

And besides, the new "Alohawaiian" airlines management has promised not to raise fares for a few years, in which time I think a new competitor will arise or come to town.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> I think the question that
Would also seem to create a lot of redundancies at HQ level that'd put people out of work in Honolulu. </font>

Yep. They have already stated unapolegetically that many jobs will be lost to redundancies. At least they are up front about it.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">
The merged airline also would likely want to leverage control of interisland routes as a "competitive" advantage to draw business on its own routes to the mainland. I would expect less-generous FF partner deals across the board.</font>

Hawaiian and Aloha have both allowed code-share flights that are beneficial to mainland airline partners for many years...I don't think they would all-of-a-sudden stop such code-shares after the merger.

And of course, HA and AQ do not code-share on their mainland routes, so no change there.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Karen2:
Heck. Does that mean I cannot continue to boycott Hawaiian Air for flying us into a hurricane without telling us??</font>

I dunno 'bout that, from what I understand they are looking for a new name for the newly merged airline -- it may no longer be Hawaiian (although the stock ticker symbol will stay HA). So you may be able to fly the new airline with the satisfaction of knowing that it's not the same one that flew you into a hurricane.

Sounds like an interesting story -- how bad was the turbulence? And why didn't they go around it?

The promise not to raise fares only refers to unrestricted fares, which, last time I checked, runs about $75 for a one way interisland flight. Nobody here (and I suspect nobody reading FT) buys an interisland ticket at that price.

-David