07:00 AM EDT, 08/20/2024 (MT Newswires) -- (Updates attribution throughout, adds comment from regulatory filing in the last paragraph.)

Alaska Air Group ( ALK ) and Hawaiian Airlines (HA) passed a key regulatory hurdle in their quest to merge Tuesday after the US Department of Justice let a midnight deadline for raising objections on antitrust grounds pass without action, a regulatory filing showed.

The two US airlines agreed to merge late last year in a $1 billion deal. The US Department of Transportation must still approve the deal, Hawaiian Airlines said in the filing.

"Hawaiian and Alaska have been working cooperatively with the DOT and expect to continue to do so," the filing said.

Hawaiian referred MT Newswires to its regulatory filing. Alaska Air ( ALK ) did not immediately reply to MT Newswires' request for comment.

Price: 35.00, Change: +0.04, Percent Change: +0.11