Supreme Court Rejects American's NEA Breakup Appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review American Airlines' appeal of a lower court ruling that dismantled its partnership with JetBlue, known as the Northeast Alliance. The ruling in May 2023 said the agreement violated federal antitrust laws.

The court's decision to decline the appeal brings a formal end to a partnership that began in July 2020 with the carriers' announcement of the deal.

The U.S. Department of Justice and seven state attorneys general filed a civil antitrust suit in September 2021against American and JetBlue after the U.S. Department of Transportation in January 2021 approved the alliance and the carriers started codesharing the following month. The carriers also shared new routes, especially out of New York and Boston, and offered reciprocal benefits for loyalty program members.

The trial commenced in September 2022, with senior airline executives taking the stand to defend the deal. In the weeks leading up to the trial, JetBlue CFO Ursula Hurley at an analyst conference, said that the NEA "is really going to help us further catapult our business traffic."

The U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, however, ruled the carriers violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, determining that the carriers were acting "as one entity in the northeast, allocating markets between them and replacing full-throated competition with broad cooperation."

Since the end of the Northeast Alliance, JetBlue attempted to acquire Spirit Airlines, but that, too, was blocked by a district court. The carrier also has shifted its focus to leisure business. 

In May, JetBlue and United Airlines announced a partnership, dubbed Blue Sky, that will link their loyalty programs, offer flights on each other's website and app, include an interline agreement, and open up some slots at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport to United, from which it pulled out in October 2022, and at Newark Liberty International Airport to JetBlue. The partnership also might "extend the terms of parts of their corporate programs to the flights operated by the other airline," according to a statement when Blue Sky was announced.