Annalisa Burgos – February 1 |
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Executives from Alaska Air and Hawaiian Airlines are sharing more details of their historic $1-point-9 billion merger deal at Chamber of Commerce events across the islands.
Fresh off talk story sessions in Hilo, Kona, and Kahului, the CEOs of Alaska and Hawaiian airlines addressed several questions from Oahu’s business community — many concerning how benefits and the workforce may change.
Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci and Hawaiian Airlines CEO Peter Ingram explained how the combined company will mean more routes, more lounges and more perks — especially for loyal fliers.
“Now you can use those miles on a larger network. Now you’ve chosen what miles on OneWorld and really the strength of that combined loyalty program is going to be really really powerful for our guests from here in Hawaii,” Ingram said.
“All those cities that Alaska’s network, the vast, vast, vast majority of those we’ll be able go to now,” Ingram added. “All those big cities that we don’t fly to nonstop, those are going to be available with a combined network.”
“Your elite status gets recognized at that level at that highest tier level and you have access to not only Alaska lounges but all 700 OneWorld lounges around the world,” Minicucci said.
Alaska Airlines is part of the OneWorld Alliance of carriers, which includes Japan Airlines and American Airlines.
Alaska said the combined airline will be positioned as a premium carrier to better compete with American, Delta, United and Southwest.
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