The Northeast Alliance, a partnership between American Airlines and JetBlue was shut down by a judge last week, ending an antitrust suit accusing the alliance of stifling competition.
Now the two carriers must split within 30 days as the decision claims the alliance is anti-competitive and would lead to overall higher fares.
American Airlines and JetBlue’s intention was to compete better against Delta and United in the Northeast, but the New York and Boston operations were deemed too controlled by the alliance.
The union’s defense was based on the fact that 18 months after the alliance began, cost increases did not occur and the capacity in the Northeast has helped customers by improving quality of travel and bringing together frequent flyer programs.
This ruling could spell trouble for JetBlue’s planned acquisition of Spirit Airlines which is also being sued for violating anti-trust laws by impacting over 150 flights across the US.
JetBlue could argue that without the Northeast Alliance with American, the Spirit purchase would not put JetBlue in as dominant a position, or the Department of Justice could simply oppose all large consolidations of the airline industry.
All images from American Airlines, featured image credit happy.second, second image credit curts_spotting_adventures
