Airlines American Airlines And JetBlue Airways began the “unraveling” of their Northeast Alliancerefused by the regulator of the competition to USA.
Having given up at the beginning of July 2023 to appeal a federal court decision last May ordering it to end the alliance launched with American Airlines at the beginning of 2021 in airports in the northeast (mainly in New York and Boston), JetBlue announced on July 14 “working together” with its ex-partner to prepare for the end of their alliance.
The first concrete consequence for passengers July 21which will see the end of air ticket sales in codeshare. ” This is only the first step in the liquidation process that will take place over the next few months. We will continue to work with the JetBlue team to ensure customers who have codeshare bookings can travel seamlessly without disrupting their travel plans. American Airlines said in a statement.
According to JetBlue, customers who are members of its Loyalty program can earn TrueBlue points for all tickets purchased before July 21, 2023, provided their TrueBlue number is added to the reservation before that date. July 21, 2023; the same “maneuver” is requested by the American Airlines program.
If the latter maintains its plans to appeal, JetBlue prefers to focus on the acquisition of Spirit Airlines – merger also rejected by the competition regulator. A decision strongly contested by the two companies: they think that “the Ministry of Justice is mistaken about the law and that it does not understand that this merger will create a national competitor of weight, at low prices” vis-a-vis the four currently dominating companies the sector (American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and the low cost Southwest Airlines control 80% of American air transport, ahead of Alaska Airlines and precisely JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines, which together would become the fifth largest airline in the United States).
