US Supreme Court rejects American Airlines appeal of ruling barring JetBlue alliance
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Monday a request by American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) to overturn a judicial decision that found that the company’s now-scrapped U.S. Northeast partnership with JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU) violated federal antitrust law, News.az reports citing CNN.
The justices turned away an appeal by American Airlines of a lower court’s decision in a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Justice Department that led to the end of the proposed "Northeast Alliance," which would have allowed the two carriers to coordinate flights and pool revenue.
American Airlines called the Supreme Court’s decision not to take up the case disappointing. It had argued that the ruling by the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had wrongly embraced a hostility to collaboration between businesses and invalidated a joint venture that increased market-wide competition.
"The Northeast Alliance was designed to increase competition and expand customer options in the Northeast, which it clearly did during the time it was allowed to operate," American Airlines said in a statement.
Through their partnership, American, the nation’s largest airline, and JetBlue, the sixth-largest, joined forces for flights in and out of New York City and Boston, coordinating schedules and pooling revenue.
The 1st Circuit’s November ruling came in a lawsuit the Justice Department filed in 2021 along with six states during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration. Under Biden, the Justice Department made boosting airline competition a top priority and aggressively enforced U.S. antitrust laws.
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