JetBlue to End Northeast Alliance with American Airlines, Will Focus on Merger Deal with Spirit

For JetBlue Airways, it’s the end of the Northeast Alliance. The New York airline decided to end its partnership with American Airlines on Wednesday after a federal judge ruled against the partnership in May, calling it anti-competitive.

JetBlue announced that it will focus on its acquisition of Spirit Airlines instead. JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes said in a staff memo, “This decision will enable us to focus even more on our combination with Spirit.” JetBlue’s deal with Sprit happened after the Northeast Alliance was launched.

In a JetBlue statement “Despite our deep conviction in the precompetitive benefits of the NEA, after much consideration, JetBlue has made the difficult decision to not appeal the court’s determination that the NEA cannot continue as currently crafted.”

According to JetBlue, ending its partnership with American is “a wind down process that will take place over the coming months.”

American Airlines, on the other hand, has a different reaction to the decision. American said in June that it would challenge the ruling against the Northeast Alliance or NEA.

Anti-Competitive Partnership

The NEA allowed the two airlines to coordinate their schedules and to share passengers and revenue. Approved in the latter part of the Trump administration, the Northeast Alliance helped American Airlines compete in the New York Market, an area where it was losing money.

While JetBlue accepted the federal judge’s decision, American Airlines on Wednesday said that it plans to appeal the ruling. In a statement, American said that “JetBlue has been a great partner, and we will continue to work with them to ensure our mutual customers can travel seamlessly without disruption to their travel plans.”

However, a spokesman for American didn’t comment on how the airline is going to move forward in case it wins an appeal. In a securities filing, JetBlue informed American on June 29 that it is ending the partnership.