Sept 18 Reuters Alaska Airlines said on Wednesday it had completed its 1.9 billion acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines after reaching an agreement with the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The airlines on Tuesday agreed to maintain key Hawaiian routes and adopt consumer protections under an agreement that will last six years.

The Justice Department in August chose not to block the deal that was announced in December by Alaska, the fifthlargest domestic U.S. airline, to merge with Hawaiian, the 10thlargest carrier.

Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci said in an interview that the deal would be good for competition and consumers and would expand access for consumers to both networks and give Alaska access to Hawaiian39;s fleet of widebody airplanes.

It39;s just a few more arrows in our quiver on how we deploy airplanes across our entire network, Minicucci said. Putting the right airplane in the right market to deliver the best results for the combined entity.

Minicucci said the airline expects to deliver at least 235 million in runrate synergies by year three.

The Justice Department has been aggressive under President Joe Biden in blocking airline consolidation. In March, JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines scrapped their 3.8 billion merger agreement after a U.S. judge blocked the deal in January on anticompetition concerns following a Justice Department lawsuit.

The agency also successfully challenged a joint venture that American and JetBlue entered into in 2020, called the…