Rep. Mink leery of airline merger

By Susan Hooper
Advertiser Staff Writer

U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink said yesterday she has "very deep reservations" about the planned merger of Hawaiian and Aloha airlines because of the possible anti-competitive implications of two carriers creating a monopoly.

Mink said she intends to speak to officials at the U.S. Department of Justice after the state attorney general's office completes its anti-trust review of the merger.

The Justice Department and the attorney general's office are studying the merger for possible antitrust violations.

Both have asked groups associated with the merger for more information, according to a shareholder document filed last week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mink said her concerns about the merger are based in part on recent comments by Aloha's president and chief executive officer, Glenn Zander, suggesting that Aloha is not failing financially. If that's the case, Mink said, "My question is: Why merge then?"

Mink spoke yesterday after addressing an International Brotherhood of Teamsters regional meeting in Waikiki. U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, who also addressed the union meeting, raised questions last week about the merger in letters to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta.

Yesterday Abercrombie said he had not heard from Ashcroft or Mineta, but he remains concerned about the need to preserve jobs and win guarantees for limits on fare increases and service cuts if regulators approve the merger.

On Monday, U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka said he was undecided about whether to support the merger. Of Hawai'i's four members of Congress, all of whom are Democrats, only Sen. Daniel Inouye has come out in full support of the merger.

Yesterday Jennifer Goto Sabas, Inouye's chief of staff for Hawai'i, said the senator still backs the merger because otherwise "there will not be a continuation of the status quo."

A spokeswoman for Greg Brenneman, the former Continental Airlines executive who is orchestrating the merger, said yesterday that the shareholder document filed last week contains financial information to help the public understand why the merger is needed. Weakness in the interisland market in particular makes the merger necessary, she said.