American And Jet Blue One will stop selling seats on flights next Friday, two months after a federal judge ruled that the Northeast airline partnership violated antitrust laws.
The judge ordered the airlines to end their partnership of more than two years, which allowed them to share passengers and revenue, and coordinate schedules in the northeastern United States. Delta And united In busy airports serving New York and Boston.
The Department of Justice, six states, and the District of Columbia sued to block this partnership, winning their case on May 20.
A JetBlue Airways plane passes behind an American Airlines plane waiting for its taxi at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.
Andrew Harrier | bloomberg | Getty Images
““We are disappointed to end popular benefits such as codeshare and mutual loyalty benefits,” Dave Fintzen, JetBlue’s vice president of Northeast Alliance, said in a statement. With the recent court ruling and the termination of the NEA, we have to go down I say in short order.”
JetBlue said last week it would not appeal the ruling, so it could focus instead on its $3.8 billion acquisition. Spirit Airlines, a deal also challenged by the DOJ, though JetBlue said it did not agree with the judge’s ruling on the Northeast alliance. However, America said it still plans to appeal the ruling on the Northeast Alliance.
Earlier this week, airline websites still offered flight options on each other’s airlines during the year-end holidays, but those sales will only last through July 20.
Both airlines said they will work with customers who have existing reservations so that their plans are not disrupted.
“This is only the first step in the truce process that will take place over the coming months,” American said in a statement. “We will continue to work with the JetBlue team to ensure that customers with existing codeshare reservations can travel smoothly without disrupting their travel plans.”
Thursday is also the last day customers can use their American AAdvantage frequent flyer miles to book flights on JetBlue.