When Alaska announced the acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines in December 2023, the executive in charge of the integration, Joe Sprague, told Beat of Hawaii in an exclusive one-on-one conversation that keeping safety first was the top priority amid the distractions of an airline acquisition.
In that earlier BOH article, Could Hawaiian Airlines Survive Without Alaska Deal? A World Of Emotion And Change, Sprague was direct: when airlines combine, attention gets pulled in every direction: systems, staffing, routes, branding, loyalty programs, aircraft plans. Don’t lose focus on safety while everything else is moving. He said it before a single integration step had been taken. The deal, in fact, had just been announced. That is why his words flashed back in our minds yesterday.
What happened at Newark on Tuesday night could have been a disaster.
An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 and a FedEx Boeing 777 were both cleared to land at Newark Liberty Airport on Tuesday night on runways that intersect, meaning both planes were heading toward the same point on the ground at the same time. With strong northwest winds gusting to 33 knots, the tower issued a go-around to the Alaska crew at 250 feet above the ground. The crew initiated it at 200 feet, climbed above the FedEx 777, and both aircraft landed safely. At 200 feet, a fully loaded 737 is less than a minute from touchdown.
After landing, Air Traffic Control told the Alaska crew the conflict was their fault and apologized. No injuries or damage were reported. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) opened its investigation on Thursday.
Where the merger stands right now.
The Alaska-Hawaiian deal is in its final stretch. April 22 is just one month away. That is when the passenger service system cutover completes, the moment Hawaiian moves onto Alaska’s reservations platform, and the two airlines finally operate as one from the customer’s point of view.
What this Newark incident actually shows.
Near misses occur in aviation and are routinely investigated. What makes this stand out is when it happened and how Alaska responded following Joe’s comment. The conflict was not Alaska’s fault. ATC created it.
The Alaska crew received a go-around call at 250 feet, initiated it at 200 feet, climbed cleanly above a FedEx 777, and returned to the Instrument Landing System (ILS) for a normal landing.
That hit us as exactly the kind of response Sprague was talking about when he told us safety had to hold during the intense noise of integration. He was not predicting a failure. He was describing a standard. On Tuesday night at Newark, with 34 days left before the single operating certificate completes, Alaska met it.
Sprague set the standard two years ago. Tuesday night at Newark was a real test under real pressure.
Do you think Alaska is holding the line overall as the integration enters its final stretch? Tell us below.
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Full integration will be completed when every single aircraft wears the Alaska Airlines logo/colors and operating solely out of Terminal 1.
Just my $.02
Never understood why they call such incidents “near misses”, when they really seem to be near hits, because the “near” miss actually did Miss. 🤷♀️. Either way, thankful
Both planes and all occupants therein are safe.