full of luv

I call BS on this one unless who you've heard it from is a highly placed FA after a couple of drinks at the hotel bar. It seems fairly obvious:

HAL is good at what they do, serve a largely vacation (and govt) flying market to the islands of Hawaii. Those margins (even during the best of times) are razor thin. There is no monopoly in flying from Sydney to HNL or anywhere else they fly, if it were great margins, Delta (or anyone else for that matter) would buy some widebodies and do it.
Delta has been more focused on the higher-revenue crowd and then rounds out the loads with cheaper tickets to fill up the jets. They like to "right size" the equipment depending on the market. That means they try to do what it takes to make the privileged (but not so privileged that they fly GA) travelers cough up higher fares by running a good record for completion and on time. Building clubs in all the major airports they serve, so the few pax that pay the bills don't have to wait with the masses. In ATL the highest rollers get chauffeured between fits in a brand new Porsche, for example.
If Delta were to buy HAL, it would be to get airframes on the cheap (meaning HAL would have to be distressed priced) and a major percentage of those assets would be redeployed to markets that pay even more revenue, leaving Hawaii back to what it is, a low-yield market that needs to be served to keep your customers happy, but not monopolized to make massive amounts of money.