Alaska Airlines has succeeded in having a lawsuit brought by a ‘group of serial litigants’ to block the planned acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines thrown out of court after a US district judge agreed that the plaintiffs couldn’t prove that they would be personally affected by the takeover.
The case was filed in April by a small group of private citizens who described themselves as airline passengers and former travel agents who feared that the merger would harm competition and lead to the destruction of the Hawaiian Airlines brand.
Alaska Airlines announced its $1.9 billion takeover of Hawaiian Airlines last year and has maintained that the two carriers will operate as separate brands within a joint umbrella company.
The Seattle-based carrier fought back against claims made in the lawsuit that the merger would lead to the death of Hawaiian’s ‘famous Aloha spirit’, and the loss of Hawaii-based jobs, arguing that the deal would, in fact, ensure that Hawaiian’s survived for many years to come.
In their 52-page complaint, the plaintiffs said they feared Hawaiian Airlines would go the same way as Virgin American when Alaska Airlines bought the carrier in 2017 promising to retain the brand only to then dump it a couple of years later.
Alaska’s lawyers sought to have the lawsuit dismissed based on the argument that the plaintiffs could not prove that they had Article III standing in the case. In other words, they couldn’t prove that they would be personally ‘injured’ by the merger.
On Monday, Judge Derrick K. Watson sided with Alaska, saying the plaintiffs “failed at the very first step” of proving Article III standing and that they hadn’t even proven they had ever flown with Alaska or Hawaiian Airlines or intended to do so in the future.
“In sum, Plaintiff’s conclusory and generalized allegations are wholly insufficient to satisfy Article III’s standing requirements,” Judge Watson concluded.
The Plaintiffs were also refused leave to amend their complaint, with Judge Watson telling them that granting leave to amend would be “futile.”
However, Alaska Airlines still faces a potential antitrust lawsuit from the Department of Justice over the proposed merger. The DOJ is yet to decided whether it will approve or seek to block the takeover.
