Alaska and Hawaiian jointly apply to US DOT for route transfer

Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines have submitted a joint application to the US Department of Transportation (DOT) requesting the ""de facto transfer of Hawaiian's international route authorities"", as Alaska moves towards completing its acquisition of Hawaiian. The joint application requested an exemption to allow Hawaiian to ""continue operations under its international authorities"" following the acquisition. The filing added: ""Following the transaction closing, Alaska and Hawaiian will be commonly owned and controlled, but will continue to operate separately until their operations can be merged under a single operating certificate."" Hawaiian will act as a wholly owned subsidiary of Alaska throughout this transition period. Both airlines requested for the department to ""promptly grant"" the exemption request in order to ""enable continuity of Hawaiian's international operations for its customers and employees upon the transaction's closing and pending the department's subsequent decision on the route transfer application."" They also cited a decision by the DOT in 2016 where it granted a similar exemption to Alaska and Virgin America. The airlines also notified in an 8K filing in May that they certified ""substantial compliance"" with the US Department of Justice's (DOJ) second request for more information. The DOJ has until early August to decide on Alaska's acquisition of Hawaiian.