Change is slowly happening as the airlines of the 49th and 50th states work towards completing their merger. This time, Alaska and Hawaiian aligns their first terminal, though not in Hawai’i. That said, expect to see moves like this more and more over the coming months.
Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines are working to integrate their operations, though, to a lesser degree than other mergers in the past. The most visible first step we’ve seen thus far is the rebalancing of certain routes. However, the most impactful for travelers will be co-locating each others operations in the same or closer terminals, as doing so will make connecting between the two carriers that much more convenient. Alas, the first time Alaska and Hawaiian aligns their first terminal is occurring at a West Coast hub, and Alaska’s newest airport facilities.
Alaska and Hawaiian Aligns Their First Terminal
So, which airport and terminal is the chosen one for when Alaska and Hawaiian aligns their first terminal? It’s the brand-spanking-new Harvey Milk Terminal at San Francisco International Airport. This new facility, along with its all-new Alaska Lounge, opened earlier this year, and helps to align all domestic Oneworld flying at SFO, as both Alaska and American call the terminal home. Of course, this will continue to hold true when Hawaiian officially joins Oneworld, too.
At any rate, as Alaska and Hawaiian aligns their first terminal at SFO, we see Hawaiian move out of the International Terminal, where it shared space with, well, foreign carriers and lower-tier domestic carriers, such as Frontier Air and Sun Country. Sure, the move does mean that international connections might require a tad more walking now, but Harvey Milk Terminal 1 is still located adjacent to the International Terminal, which will undoubtedly improve connections for those traveling on both Alaska and Hawaiian on a single itinerary.
More Coming Changes
In its press release celebrating the fact that Alaska and Hawaiian aligns their first terminal, Hawaiian states that additional terminal alignments are planned throughout 2025. Those alignments will occur at Sacramento, Ontario, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. That last one will be particularly good news for regular Hawaiian fliers, as their current location in the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX is far from ideal. What is interesting, though, is that neither Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Portland International Airport, Kahului International Airport, or Honolulu International Airport were included.
Of course, Hawaiian’s statement referred to move Hawaiian would be making, so it’s conceivable that Alaska will move into the same terminals as Hawaiian in the islands, though the omission of SEATAC and PDX remains strange.
That said, another interesting tidbit in the press release is that the migration into a single passenger service system is scheduled to occur in 2026. Considering that the merger closed back in mid-September, this tracks with the timeline Alaska had when it acquired Virgin America, and means most of the integration work should wrap up in Q1 2026.
Alaska and Hawaiian Aligns Their First Terminal, Final Thoughts
As I keep saying, it’ll be interesting to see how things continue to evolve as Alaska and Hawaiian work towards aligning their operations more and more. To me, how they handle their primary hubs will be particularly intriguing, as Hawaiian has an entire terminal to itself in Honolulu, while Alaska operates out of several terminals of varying quality in Seattle. Plus, since both airlines have their own lounges in their primary hubs, but not at their merger partners’ hubs, it’ll be interesting to see how that situation is handled, too. But, we’ll learn answers to these questions soon enough. For now, just make sure you head to Terminal 1 at SFO for Alaska AND Hawaiian flights!
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