Alaska Airlines pips JetBlue for Virgin America deal
April 4, 2016 Leave a comment
WHILE it was initially speculated that JetBlue would win the bid for Virgin America, now it looks like it is Alaska Airlines that will emerge the victor. The Seattle-hub airline is expected to pay US$2 billion for the deal.
Merging with Virgin will enlarge Alaska’s base on the west coast, more specifically its share of traffic out of San Francisco from 4 per cent to 15 per cent and Los Angeles from 5 per cent to 11 per cent. Alaska, currently ranked 6th by traffic in the US behind JetBlue, will now be bigger than its rival.
A point in favour of Alaska, which also owns Horizon Air, is that it has fewer overlapping schedules with Virgin.
As American aviation continues to spawn mega mergers that shrink the number of competing carriers, the authorities will have to grapple with concerns that this may lead to higher airfares. However, there is the glimmer of hope that both Virgin and Alaska as one airline will continue to offer lower fares with fewer add-ons competing with the other airlines.
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