Greetings from Dallas. Today is Southwest’s investor day, and I have made the trek to join analysts and media to hear what the airline is planning to right the ship. No matter what it is, I can guarantee that Elliott will not be impressed. They said that quite bluntly and colorfully in a letter to shareholders sent two days ago. But then, Southwest punched back. Anyway, the point is… this should be a lot of fun.
But there’s no need to get into all that today. You’ll hear a whole lot more about this from me on Monday after I’ve had time to soak it all in. This is a long way of saying that with my travel plans this week, I ran out of time to put together a decent Thursday post.
Fear not. If you’re looking for new content, you need to turn no further than The Air Show where Jon Ostrower, Brian Sumers, and I this week dove into what we think could happen as Alaska and Hawaiian move toward integration.
I was focused on the whole dual brand strategy and what that might mean. Jon, naturally tackled fleet. And Brian dug into the future frequent flier program. It’s an action-packed half hour, and I didn’t even get to say everything I was thinking.
So, have a listen this week, and next week, get ready for a whole lot more on Southwest.
20 comments on “A Look Ahead at the Alaska and Hawaiian Merger”
Welcome to DFW Brett. Picked a beautiful day for it. Better than last week when we were around 100 degrees for about the 600th time this year.
Should be an interesting day.
It’s WN, so wouldn’t it be greetings from DAL, not DFW? ;)
To us locals, DFW is not just the airport, but also the name for the whole area. Hence, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that DAL (the airport) is in DFW (the area). Either that or sometimes we call it “the metroplex”, which some people really hate, though I’m not sure why.
Just saw the press release about SW new policies.
Basically status quo except going to assigned seats in…2026??
Elliott ain’t gonna be remotely happy.
Google keeps putting Akasa articles in my feed, and I can only guess it thinks it’s a likely typo from Alaska. So who knows, maybe there is a mistaken identity hope for them in India!
One thing I don’t think was mentioned in the podcast is that almost any 787 destination from CONUS will take two planes: one each way per day. The 12 frames they’re supposed to take works out to 4 or 5 international destinations, plus spares. Maybe 3 destinations if they’re rotated through CONUS red-eyes for those flat beds.
All of which is to say that these planes don’t necessarily seem destined to replace the A330s. I wonder if we’ll see an A330 cabin refresh, then, and if they’ll go for the more premium config or the 787, the semi premium of the 737, or more leisure heavy.
If I ran out of time to write a decent post, I would have simply titled a post (with no description) as “What’s Wrong With American Airlines?” and let the comments section bicker over it.
Texas seems to have a bit of a curse with airline management that’s for sure.
I just read the Elliott letter. I’m just speechless. I really hope they don’t succeed in whatever it is they’re doing.
The thing is, their letter says they just want changes. They have no proposals on actual policy changes.
This just reiterates how they want to basically loot the company. It’s not about making the company profitable for the long term, it’s about making a quick buck and leaving the dead shell of the company for the taxpayers, creditors, and employees to deal with.
Make sure you stop by Jose or Katy Trail Ice House after, Brett
Babes Chicken is a really great place for a chicken dinner.
You might also look up Risky’s BBQ in the Ft. Worth area for some solid BBQ, and all you can eat beef ribs!
Looking for a good BBQ place to try the next time I am closer to Dallas downtown…..
When they say they’re going to keep the brands separate, they’re not going to keep the brands separate. Because neither brand really compliments the other, it’ll be interesting to see what they come up with. My money is on both names disappearing and something new coming out.
Maybe a merger with JetBlue eventually. And they adopt JetBlue name being that the combined carrier will be more intercontinental and not have a regionally state named airline. I can’t see how any other merger than this which makes most sense.
They won’t retire the HA brand entirely and replace it with AS. Selling seats from SEL to HNL on Alaska Airlines would be quite a challenge. Selling seats from JFK to HNL on Alaska Airlines would also be quite a challenge.
I’ve seen Wall Street scumbags like Elliott before and whatever they’re looking for is very detrimental for WN and, frankly, bad for the rest of us who fly. They’re greedy liars who couch their desires behind business buzzwords and finely manicured spin. Fact is, they simply decided to raid Southwest because it seemed lucrative and vulnerable. And, before they’re done, they’ll walk out with billions of dollars (with more than enough for fat contributions to certain politicians, btw) while the airline will be left as a shell of it’s former self. And a lot of their employees will have lost their jobs. Airfare overall will rise because of one less viable competitor. It will take a while, but they’ll do it if permitted to take over management of the company.
I’ve seen this show before: Elliott are Gordon Gekko wannabes for a new century. They’re only out for themselves and screw everyone else. They make the mafia look magnanimous.
100% percent correct. Seems like actual customers are the least of these raiders concerns. But no customers, zero value. And who are the 80% of customers allegedly surveyed who dislike open seating? I fly SW freqently thru Midway. The A and B group people I talk to dont have any problems. Maybe they only survey C40s to C60s?
loled at that picture and “think that’s up to you, buddy.”
I highly doubt they keep two separate brands long term. In the short term, it puts at ease the concerns for those who want to see the Hawaiian brand remain.
However, i cannot imagine them keeping two brands around in the long term. Too much extra (unnecessary) costs to maintain two separate brands in a razor thin margin industry.
As a fellow GenXer I just want to say thank you for giving voice to those of us who found the Virgin American branding annoying and thought it was a huge plus when AS acquired them. I am sorry I want my pilot to look like a seasoned airline veteran not a bartender.
Here is my prediction for how the branding will play out. They will keep airplanes painted in the two schemes. (Think of it a a super retro livery approach, the fact the American flys a PSA painted aircraft is one of its few redeeming qualities). Website URLs will remain but point to a unified reservation system. Interisland and to the island flights will have have a special Hawaiian based cabin service; but the will announce at some point a unifying of the inflight experience taking the best of both brands, so the Hawaiian theme will just be extra stuff associated with flights to/from HI. Employees will be allowed to wear uniforms of their legacy airline so you will have mixed crew uniforms.
On the backside everything will use the ASA ICAO code and the callsign for everyone will be Alaska. We mainlanders will occasionally get random Hawaiian branded aircraft as they get routed through the CONUS network. High probability for west coast redeyes where AS will deploy the A321 so they don’t sit overnight.
I think the interesting question will be if they do use widebodies out of SEA to Asia or Europe will they rebrand them Alaska?
When they merge operating certificates, will the ‘HA’ flights be “Hawaiian Airlines operated by Alaska Airlines?”
Jason – I assume that’s how it’ll work, yeah.