How to replace image alpha layer using PHP

Is there efficient way to replace alpha channel of target image with contents from another image (eg. red channel)? Now I'm using this code, but it's the slowest part of the whole app. Is it possible to use imagelayereffect() or maybe imagefilter() somehow to get the same result? Or maybe it is possible to break this into separate actions, eg. processing mask pixels with alpha = 0, alpha = 127 (it's in the code below), and any other values?

function imagealphamask( &$picture, $mask ) {

    // Get sizes and set up new picture
    $xSize = imagesx( $picture );
    $ySize = imagesy( $picture );
    $newPicture = imagecreatetruecolor( $xSize, $ySize );
    imagesavealpha( $newPicture, true );
    imagefill( $newPicture, 0, 0, imagecolorallocatealpha( $newPicture, 0, 0, 0, 127 ) );

    // Resize mask if necessary
    if( $xSize != imagesx( $mask ) || $ySize != imagesy( $mask ) ) {
        $tempPic = imagecreatetruecolor( $xSize, $ySize );
        imagecopyresampled( $tempPic, $mask, 0, 0, 0, 0, $xSize, $ySize, imagesx( $mask ), imagesy( $mask ) );
        imagedestroy( $mask );
        $mask = $tempPic;
    }

    // Perform pixel-based alpha map application
    for( $x = 0; $x < $xSize; $x++ ) {
        for( $y = 0; $y < $ySize; $y++ ) {
            $alpha = imagecolorsforindex( $mask, imagecolorat( $mask, $x, $y ) );
            $alpha = 127 - floor( $alpha[ 'red' ] / 2 );
            if ($alpha == 127) {
                continue;
            }
            $color = imagecolorsforindex( $picture, imagecolorat( $picture, $x, $y ) );
            imagesetpixel( $newPicture, $x, $y, imagecolorallocatealpha( $newPicture, $color[ 'red' ], $color[ 'green' ], $color[ 'blue' ], $alpha ) );
        }
    }

    imagedestroy( $picture );
    $picture = $newPicture;
}