Alaska's Plan to Acquire Hawaiian Makes Sense

Alaska surprised me on Sunday by announcing a deal to acquire Hawaiian Airlines. Some of you may be skeptical. But this is a smart management team, and I think the deal can work.

Dear readers,

Not long ago, I gave Alaska Airlines plaudits for how it handled its acquisition of Virgin America, particularly for how it avoided throwing good money after bad when it realized that some of the assets it had inherited — like gate space in Los Angeles and slots in New York, or those shiny new A321s — were not as valuable as they appeared. …