IMHO, as a lifelong Hawaii state resident, I believe that Hawaiian decided to sell now because they have not really recovered from the COVID Scamdemic and their mounting debt, under Bidenenomics, appears to be unrecoverable, and union contracts are unsustainable. Tourism from Japan has drastically declined. Additionally, the potted plants in the state legislature believe that passing on their ever increasing taxes to tourists would be acceptable and have no economic effect. Hawaiian has been going downhill since COVID. There’s very little Aloha in their customer relations anymore, computer “glitches” are a regular excuse, flight delays and / or cancelations are numerous.
There’s a hundred other reason’s I can think about but it basically falls in the same category - too much government.
So why would alaska airlines buy hawaiian airlines. Alaska will just run into the same problems as hawaiian airlines ran into.
Do you still live in Hawaii? I do and I completely agree with you.