By Mike Scarcella
May 17 (Reuters) –Alaska Airlines on Friday asked a U.S. judge to throw out a consumer lawsuit over the carrier’s plan to buy peer Hawaiian Airlines for $1.9 billion, arguing that the transaction would not unlawfully consolidate its power in the transportation industry.
Alaska Airlines said in the filing in Hawaii federal court that the consumers’ April lawsuit did not show how passengers would face any “concrete, particularized and impending harm” if the deal is allowed to move forward.
It called the plaintiffs “serial litigants” who have sued over other airline mergers and said their allegations were “boilerplate.”
Alaska Airlines declined to comment on Friday. An attorney for the plaintiffs — eight airline passengers from Hawaii, California and other states — did not immediately respond to a request for one.
The lawsuit said “the current trend toward concentration, the lessening of competition and the tendency to create a monopoly in the airlines industry is unmatched, unparalleled, and dangerous.”
Alaska Airlines countered in Friday’s filing that “the merger will vastly expand their customers’ access to the rest of the world.”
The airline has said that the proposed deal was under antitrust review by the U.S. Justice Department. Both carriers said in March that they “have been working cooperatively with the DOJ and expect to continue to do so.”
A Justice Department spokesperson on Friday declined to comment.
Hawaiian Airlines is not a defendant in the consumers’ lawsuit.
The case is Warren Yoshimoto et al v. Alaska Airlines and Alaska Air Group, U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii, No. 1:24-cv-00173.
For plaintiffs: Terence O’Toole of Starn O’Toole Marcus & Fisher; and Joseph Alioto of Alioto Law Firm
For Alaska Air: Courtney Dyer, Stephen McIntyre, Anna Pletcher and Pete Herrick of O’Melveny & Myers
Read more:
US consumers sue to stop Alaska Air, Hawaiian Airlines merger
Reporting by Mike Scarcella
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