American Airlines and JetBlue Airways said Friday they are going to begin to wind down their Northeast Alliance on July 21 after a US judge’s order in May that they end the agreement.
JetBlue said last week it will terminate the three-year-old alliance, which allowed the 2 carriers to coordinate flights and pool revenue.
Each airlines said starting July 21, American and JetBlue customers will now not have the ability to book latest codeshare bookings on the opposite airlines.
JetBlue has said it’ll not appeal the ruling, but American Airlines says it still plans to challenge US District Judge Leo Sorokin’s decision that found the partnership “substantially” diminished competition within the domestic airline market.
American is the most important US airline by fleet size while JetBlue is the sixth largest.
The alliance’s dissolution is a setback to American’s technique to grow revenue by relying more heavily on alliance partners to ferry passengers in uncompetitive markets.
The Northeast Alliance helped American compete within the Recent York market, where it had been losing money.
It allowed American to maneuver away from unprofitable routes while maintaining a presence in Recent York and letting it feed traffic to its global partners.
JetBlue argues terminating its alliance with American renders “entirely moot” the Justice Department’s objections that led it to file suit to dam its merger cope with Spirit Airlines, which can be the most important within the US airline industry since American and US Airways merged in 2013.
A trial on the department’s suit to dam the deal is set for October.
The airlines said they’re working “to attenuate disruption to customers.” For purchasers with travel already booked, frequent flyer numbers will must be added to the booking before July 21, they said.
Customers can accrue frequent flyer credit for all tickets purchased prior to July 21 so long as account numbers are added before that date, they said.
