Hawaiian-Aloha merger chronology
| • | Merger plans called off, Hawaiian Airlines says |
Advertiser Staff
• Dec. 19: Hawaiian and Aloha airlines announce a $200 million deal to merge in what would create the nation's 10th-largest airline but leave the Islands with only one major local carrier for the first time in more than five decades.
• Dec. 27: Details begin to emerge about the direction of the merged airline including possible new Mainland destinations, a $3 million incentive payment to be shared by all unions if they merge their seniority lists by a certain time, and payroll-trimming options such as voluntary furloughs and sweetened early-retirement packages.
• Jan. 4: Hawaiian Airlines employees form a "grass-roots" group called Citizens for Competitive Air Travel to oppose the merger.
• Jan. 8: TurnWorks, the company engineering the merger, says interisland one-way coach fares would be capped at $78 for two years on the new carrier, with residents qualifying for some interisland fares of $55 or less. TurnWorks also says the new airline will continue flying to all of the interisland markets now served by Aloha Airlines, Aloha Island Air and Hawaiian Airlines, and to honor all existing cargo contracts.
• Jan. 9: More than 70 percent of union workers at Hawaiian and Aloha airlines are offered a plan to avoid furloughs. The offer — to the Association of Flight Attendants and several work groups in the International Association of Machinists, representing a total of about 3,600 employees — says workers will receive furlough protection if, by the date the merger closes, they agree to new contract terms and merged seniority lists. The merger is set to close by mid-year.
• Jan. 10: TurnWorks says interisland flights would be cut about 10 to 12 percent under the plan taking shape to combine the carriers. That translates into the elimination of about 24 of the airlines' 244 daily interisland flights. No specific routes have been identified yet.
• Jan. 17: Three shareholders of Hawaiian Airlines file class-action lawsuits in Hawai'i to stop the company's merger with Aloha, charging that Hawaiian's board of directors breached its duty to other shareholders in order to obtain "millions of dollars of personal benefits."
• Jan. 21: TurnWorks says the newly-merged carrier likely will convert its entire interisland fleet to Boeing 717s like those used by Hawaiian, affecting hundreds of Aloha pilots and mechanics who would have to be retrained.
• Jan. 22: The possible long-range effects of the merger of Aloha and Hawaiian airlines came under scrutiny by state senators who question what fares and service would look like after the new airline's proposed five-year guarantees end.
• Jan. 25: Gov. Ben Cayetano says he was reconsidering his support for the proposed merger of Aloha and Hawaiian airlines after Aloha's chief executive officer disputed reports that his airline was on the verge of failure. The governor earlier supported the merger, saying one airline would fail if the two did not combine.
• Feb. 11: U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie raises concerns about the effect of the merger on interisland passenger traffic and routes and increased costs to consumers in letters to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. Citizens for Competitive Air Travel presents a petition to Cayetano's chief of staff containing tens of thousands of signatures of people opposed to the merger.
• Feb. 14: In a shareholder document filed with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, Hawai'i's two interisland airlines say they were losing as much as $270,000 a day in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks as air travel plummeted and they struggled to cut costs.
• March 8: Hawai'i's two major interisland airlines say they are developing a plan to collaborate before their proposed merger under a federal antitrust exemption granted in November. Details are unavailable.
• March 12: State senators continue to question the executive leading the proposed merger about the strength of fare and service guarantees for the new carrier, and ask for an analysis of how those guarantees could be legally binding.
• March 16: Hawaiian Airlines says the merger is off. Aloha officials say they are aware, but cannot comment. TurnWorks officials say they are disappointed.
