American Airlines lost its bid to revive an alliance with JetBlue, which collapsed after lawsuits succeeded in declaring the alliance anticompetitive, a judge ruled Friday.
The scrapped alliance between American Airlines, the largest U.S. airline, and JetBlue, the sixth largest, left the airlines coordinating flights and seats and sharing profits.
In July 2023, a judge ruled that the alliance was anti-competitive and would drive up ticket prices.
“The Northeast Alliance was designed to increase competition and expand options for customers in the Northeast, which it clearly did during the time it was allowed to operate,” an American Airlines spokesperson told ConsumerAffairs. “We are reviewing the decision and considering our options.”
JetBlue did not immediately respond to an email from ConsumerAffairs seeking comment.
Why was the alliance between American Airlines and JetBlue considered anti-competitive?
In September 2021, the attorneys general of seven states, including California, Florida and Pennsylvania, sued American Airlines and Jet Blue about the alliance, saying it would cost fliers hundreds of millions of dollars in more expensive tickets by limiting flights and competition.
“Fewer flights. More expensive tickets. Lower quality service. That’s what happens when one of the last bits of real competition is eliminated from the air travel market,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said at the time.
The so-called Northeast Alliance would have affected at least nine airports with routes starting or ending in New York or Boston, effectively allowing the airlines to operate as one, the attorneys general said.
Attorneys general said the Northeast Alliance would have caused similar harm to flyers as the American-American Air merger and Alaska Airline’s acquisition of Virgin America, which impacted certain airports and drove up prices.
Dieter HolgerData reporter
Dieter Holger is a data reporter for ConsumerAffairs. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, PCWorld and dozens of other media outlets. He has a Master of Science in computational and data journalism from Cardiff University and a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from UC Santa Cruz. Write to him at [email protected].
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