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American Airlines and JetBlue Airways formed a partnership in 2021 known as the Northeast Alliance. The two airlines coordinated their route networks, offered reciprocal earnings, and extended elite benefits to members of both programs. The thought behind the pairing was that American struggled to build its presence in NYC organically and that JetBlue could feed traffic so that it could use New York as an international gateway. This sounded good in theory and was in place for two years before a federal judge ruled that the partnership needed to be dissolved. American and JetBlue indicated a desire to try to reconnect, but that now looks like it’s over. This makes me wonder if it will soon be time for United Airlines to make its move and acquire JetBlue.
American Airlines issued a memo today from Vice Chair and Chief Strategy Officer, Steve Johnson. It reads:
Team,
In recent months, we had been exploring an opportunity to further enhance our network by renewing a partnership with JetBlue. As always in considering partnerships, the objective was to advance our business strategy and enhance our customer proposition by building on American’s network position and giving a partner’s customers access to our global network and the world’s best loyalty program in AAdvantage.
Although we proposed a very attractive proposition to JetBlue and its customers and team, it became clear over time that JetBlue was focused on different business priorities. Ultimately, we were unable to agree on a construct that preserved the benefits of the partnership we envisioned, made sense operationally or financially, or was consistent with the travel rewards and co-branded card business objectives that are so important to our strategy and our customers.
Looking ahead: We remain intently focused on and are competing aggressively in New York and Boston, and we are committed to enhancing our customer proposition in the Northeast. Over the past year, we have added more than 20 new routes from LGA and JFK using the slots returned to us after the NEA ended. Together with our partners, this summer we will offer New York travelers more than 250 daily nonstop flights to 100 markets around the world – from two exceptional terminal facilities, including the best lounges in our system. At JFK, we continue to improve connectivity by co-locating at T8 with our partners, including British Airways, Iberia, JAL, Qatar, and, as we recently announced, Alaska and Hawaiian.
The continued growth in AAdvantage enrollments in the region makes us confident that the New York market is sufficiently large and lucrative to support and value multiple competing networks. And of course, New York is a key business and leisure travel market for customers around the system, so we will also continue to optimize the “halo” effect for our network by providing convenient schedules to New York for travelers who live in cities throughout the U.S. and around the world.
We are proud to connect customers to more than 1,000 destinations around the globe, with an outstanding group of partners who share our belief that alliances are meant to provide customers with the experience they deserve and benefits they prefer. We will continue to build American’s network organically and through growth and investment in these partnerships.
One final note, in case you see it in the news. We filed a lawsuit against JetBlue today to recover money owed to American following the unwinding of the Northeast Alliance. We understandably tabled this claim while we were in discussions with JetBlue, but now that those conversations have concluded, we need to address the accounting and reconciliation following the termination of the NEA.
Thank you for your help as we continue this important work.
Steve”
It’s surprising that American would call this off completely and look to recoup money from JetBlue. The airline will need to build its New York presence on its own and to date it doesn’t seem like that is going so well. JetBlue is also facing its own struggles and many question whether it will be able to survive in the future.
In January, I wrote about rumors that United Airlines might acquire JetBlue. This would grant United gates at New York John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK), which it has wanted pretty much since it abandoned the airport in 2015, as well as a huge bump in its presence in both Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL). United squashed those rumors at the time, but since then, CEO Scott Kirby has made comments that have made many wonder if it’s possible. This coupled with Kirby’s recent support of the Trump administration’s tariffs (which many also think is simply to gain favor when attempting to make an acquisition like this one).
Anthony’s Take: I hope this merger eventually becomes a reality. United has a lot to gain and I don’t see too many paths for JetBlue to remain solvent on its own. I guess we’ll have to continue to chase the rumors until we get confirmation.
(Image Credits: JetBlue and United.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
