Why United Airlines Is Concerned About Alaska Hawaiian Airlines Merger

After the deal has been in the works for almost a year.

And after the agreement just passed a major hurdle with the Department of Justice.

Aviation experts agree that it won’t kill the deal, but United’s concerns could delay the $1.9 billion agreement. The Department of Transportation still has to complete its investigation before it approves the merger.

United sent a letter to the DOT, raising concerns about the merger’s potential impact on United’s current deals with Hawaiian that allow passengers to accumulate miles on both airlines.

“What it means is that their airline can sell some tickets on that airplane, and both companies make some profit on that arrangement,” said Hawaii aviation expert Peter Forman. “It is a lucrative type of agreement between airlines.”

But, he said, it doesn’t appear to be a deal-breaker.

“It’s not a showstopper at all because worse case situation, the DOT says Hawaiian you got to keep these agreements open to United,” said Forman.

United has been flying to Hawaii for generations and has had agreements with Hawaiian Airlines for decades. Why it waited this long and the process of the merger to voice is concerned is unknown.

“I started working for them back in 1987 here in Hawaii. The biggest carriers were United, Northwest and Continental,” said former United pilot Patrick McNamee. “United shot the first bullet across the bow. Trust me, Southwest is going to be there by tomorrow.”

The merger cleared a major hurdle with the DOJ, the same government agency that blocked a merger between JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines.