Originally Posted by
navydevildoc
You are probably right on the timeline, but I am going to be the sterotypical borderline autistic pendant about planes guy for a second...
There is no such thing as "Brand Agnostic". Part 121 Carriers have to have the name of the operating airline on the outside of the aircraft. So while the tail might be the aurora, the side of the plane is gonna say Alaska.
In fact, once the single op cert is granted, I am pretty sure they have to put "Operated by Alaska Airlines" or similar verbiage on the outside of each of the Hawaiian planes as well.
Yes, sure, it'll say "Alaska" on the plane, so brand-agnostic was not the correct phrase to use. The point was those routes rely on new planes that Alaska doesn't have yet.