Supreme Court Declines American Airlines’ Northeast Alliance Appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said it would not overturn the lower court decision that led to the ending of the Northeast Alliance between American Airlines and JetBlue, despite a plea from American.

American Airlines had wanted the court to reconsider the lower court decision that forced American and JetBlue to scrap their Northeast Alliance last year. American had said that the lower court ruling wrongly forced an end to a partnership that increased competition and expanded options for flyers in the Northeast.

The decision on Monday essentially brings an end to the five-year-long saga that started with a Justice Department lawsuit in 2021. That lower court decision came two years later when U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston sided with the Justice Department.

Sorokin, writing at the time, said that the alliance essentially destroyed competition between two major U.S. airlines, making them collaborators instead of competitors. It especially stopped competition between a major legacy airline, American, and another airline that was geared to be a disruptive force in the industry and compete with American and other legacy carriers.

“It makes the two airlines partners, each having a substantial interest in the success of their joint and individual efforts, instead of vigorous, arm’s-length rivals regularly challenging each other in the marketplace of competition,” Sorokin wrote in the ruling.

JetBlue has since announced a new partnership with United Airlines called Blue Sky—a partnership the two carriers say “gives customers of both airlines even more options to find flights that fit their plans, as well as new opportunities to earn and use MileagePlus® miles and TrueBlue points across both airlines.”