American Airlines and Jet Blue violated the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, a federal appeals court said, by sharing revenue and coordinating service for Boston Logan, JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark Liberty airports. In his opinion, Appellate Judge William Kayatta Jr. wrote that proof of "anticompetitive harm matters not at all in this case," apparently giving no consideration to whether anyone was actually hurt by the airlines' actions.
The First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Massachusetts District Judge Leo Sorokin's decision in U.S. v. American Airlines on Friday. The case revolved around a September 2021 complaint from the Department of Justice (DOJ) against the Northeast Alliance (NEA) between American Airlines and Jet Blue. The complaint alleged that the NEA, which took effect in February 2021, violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act by "effectively merging their operations in Boston and New York City and eliminating competition."
