After much buzz over the last few days, it was announced today that Alaska Airlines is acquiring Virgin America for $2.6 billion. The airlines indicated that after the acquisition, the combined airline will have 1,200 daily departures, 280 aircraft, as well as hubs in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Anchorage, Alaska, and Portland, Oregon.
As with the American Airlines/US Airways merger, where the loyalty programs were merged into the American Advantage program, it appears as if the same scenario would happen with this merger. Virgin America’s Elevate frequent-flier members would be rolled into Alaska Air’s MileagePlan program.
Other than that, there are still a lot of unknowns as to what would happen to the the Virgin America brand. To be continued…