American Airlines petitions US Supreme Court over Northeast Alliance partnership

American Airlines has requested that the US Supreme Court evaluate its blocked Northeast Alliance (NEA) partnership with JetBlue, arguing that competition “is not sufficient to declare a joint venture unlawful.” 

In a petition released on March 3, 2025, American Airlines asked the US Court to review a decision made in November 2024 by the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which invalidated a joint venture between American Airlines and JetBlue Airways. 

According to the petition, the Northeast Alliance was formed to optimize schedules to offer travelers more flights, and more seats, to more destinations than the airlines would otherwise offer on their own.  

Additionally, American and JetBlue increased their capacity at NEA airports by over 200%, offered approximately 50 new nonstop routes, and increased frequencies on more than 130 routes. 

American argued that the joint venture “increased market wide competition among all airlines in the congested Northeast without any price increases” but was rejected “solely because it reduced competition between the two joint venture partners.”  

Moreover, the decision was based on a handful of cases in which there was less American or JetBlue service on a route, because aircraft were moved to a higher and better use within the NEA region. 

It added that the Court has recognized that joint ventures are frequently procompetitive because they “enable firms to do something more cheaply or better” than they can alone. American said the NEA’s flight network allowed the airlines to compete with the entrenched market leaders, including Delta Air Lines and United Airlines. 

In January 2023, American Airlines and JetBlue agreed to pay almost $2 million in legal fees to six US states after losing a lawsuit against their Northeast Alliance partnership. The airlines denied the states’ antitrust claims and stated that paying the fees does not mean they admit to any wrongdoing. The post American Airlines petitions US Supreme Court over Northeast Alliance partnership appeared first on AeroTime.

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