Alaska CE: Merger issues being discussed with DOJ are ‘manageable’

Alaska Air Group remains in discussions with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) over gaining antitrust clearance for its acquisition of Virgin America and continues to be confident the deal will be approved. “The scope of the issues that remain with the Justice Department are manageable,” Alaska chairman and CE Brad Tilden said Thursday, explaining that the issues are “important” and time will be needed to work through them. “We were hoping to get this done a couple of weeks ago,” he said. Tilden said he is unable to give a specific timeline on when the talks with DOJ will conclude and the Alaska-Virgin America merger can close, though he noted Alaska is “good to go” from a financing standpoint. “We’re fully prepared to close the deal once we have DOJ approval,” CFO Brandon Pedersen added. <br/>