By Nate Raymond and David Shepardson
(Reuters) -American Airlines has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a lower-court decision that found its now-scrapped U.S. Northeast partnership with JetBlue Airways violated federal antitrust law.
American Airlines in a petition made public on Monday asked the justices to review a decision in November by a Boston-based federal appeals court that upheld a trial judge’s ruling blocking the airlines’ “Northeast Alliance,” which had allowed the two carriers to coordinate flights and pool revenue.
The company argued that the joint venture was designed to increase market-wide competition among all airlines and that the lower court’s ruling, by invalidating the alliance, “threatens to wreak havoc on productive collaborations of all shapes and sizes.”
The ruling by the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came in a lawsuit the U.S. Department of Justice filed in 2021 along with six states during the Democratic administration of former President Joe Biden.
“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,” the company said in a statement.
The Justice Department, now under Republican President Donald Trump, did not immediately respond to a request for comment; nor did JetBlue.
The alliance was announced in July 2020 and approved by the U.S. Transportation Department just days before the end of Trump’s first administration in January 2021.
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 Justice Department argued that the alliance would hurt consumers by eliminating incentives for American to cut prices to lure customers from JetBlue, a historically disruptive rival with often lower fares.
U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in May 2023 sided with the Justice Department and found the alliance violated antitrust law.
Following Sorokin’s ruling, JetBlue terminated the alliance, as it unsuccessfully sought to bolster its efforts to win approval for the now-dropped $3.8-billion purchase of Spirit Airlines, which the Justice Department also challenged.
American Airlines, though, pressed ahead with an appeal, saying the ruling would prevent the company from entering into any similar future arrangement, including with JetBlue.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese and David Gregorio)
