The aviation group Alaska Airlines has announced that it wants to take over competitor Hawaiian Airlines for a price of 1,9 billion US dollars. The debts of the smaller carrier are also to be purchased. The transaction still needs to be cleared by US competition authorities.

The takeover of the comparatively small Hawaiian Airlines is of strategic importance for Alaska Airlines. It buys a market share of around 50 percent in traffic between the mainland and the island state, which is considered a popular vacation spot for travelers from all over the world.

The offer that Alaska Airlines would like to pay per share is correspondingly high: they want to put around 18 US dollars per share on the table. That corresponds to around four times as much as Hawaiian Airlines was last worth. The small carrier's share price has repeatedly been under pressure in recent months. The Maui wildfires, high fuel costs and ongoing problems with the engines of Hawaiian's Airbus A321neo fleet have led to steep losses and a 12 percent share price decline over the past 65 months.

The current plan is for Hawaiian Airlines to continue as an independent brand. The shared route network is expected to cover around 138 destinations and expands to more than 1.200 destinations around the globe via the Alaska-Oneworld membership. Alaska Airlines currently serves 311 routes, but only 12 of them overlap with Hawaiian Airlines.

The planned takeover must first be approved by the US authorities. It is currently impossible to estimate whether there could be requirements. At a few airports, the two carriers together have an extremely strong market position in traffic to/from Hawaii. The antitrust authorities may take a closer look at this. It is currently expected that it could take up to 18 months to obtain approval and approval from the shareholders of both airlines.