Carriers say relationship is an interline agreement and not a codeshare

JetBlue and United Airlines have jointly filed with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), requesting that the agency  “dismiss or disregard” Spirit Airlines’ complaint against the carriers’ partnership, called “Blue Sky.”

In late June, Spirit requested that the agency prohibit the planned deal on the grounds that it was anticompetitive, would raise fares, weaken other “value airlines” and “siphon off customers attracted by access to the United loyalty program.”

The two airlines asserted that the partnership would be an interline agreement and not a codeshare; that they would remain independent and competitive; and that there would be no revenue sharing, no joint network planning and no schedule optimization. Those   were elements of the Northeast Alliance between American Airlines and JetBlue, which was ended by the DOT under the Biden administration.

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The filing also cited JetBlue’s upcoming nonstop service between Newark and Las Vegas and expanded service between Newark and Los Angeles, “in direct competition with United’s existing services on these routes.” It also said that JetBlue will not join the Star Alliance or any of United’s “immunized” joint ventures as part of Blue Sky.

In addition, the filing argued that “time is of the essence for JetBlue,” which has lost $3 billion since the Covid-19 pandemic and has not reported an annual profit since 2019. “Given the well-documented challenges facing smaller carriers, JetBlue believes that prompt review and implementation of the Blue-Sky collaboration is essential to preserving competition and consumer choice — and to providing smaller carriers a viable path forward, something which was foreclosed by the previous Administration,” according to the filing.