The road had a few more bumps than expected, but Alaska
Airlines has cleared the major hurdles to acquire Virgin America, which will
make it a much bigger player in the corporate travel space in the coming year.
Winning the deal itself was a coup for Alaska. Once Virgin America went up for
sale this year, Alaska faced a bidding war with JetBlue. Alaska prevailed,
however, and will surpass JetBlue to become the fifth-largest carrier in the
United States.
Antitrust clearance was another major hurdle, especially
considering the fight the U.S. Department of Justice put up against the merger
of American Airlines and US Airways in 2013. Tilden maintained that the merger
would stimulate, not hinder, competition, as Alaska would become a stronger
competitive force against bigger U.S. carriers.
Alaska had hoped to have approval by the end of September
but had to wait until early December as the DOJ extended its review. Though the
DOJ required some concessions from Alaska, including ending some of its
codeshares with American Airlines, DOJ antitrust division acting assistant
attorney general Renata Hesse said that the merger "offers hope that a
strengthened Alaska can be an even stronger competitor than before."
Now, of course, the true work behind a merger begins. Alaska's
and Virgin's corporate sales teams already have been talking, and Alaska is
eager to present its strengthened presence in California to corporate customers
there.