The Department of Justice ruled on Friday that American Airlines and JetBlue Airways must dismantle the carriers’ long-term partnership.
The Northeast Alliance was the first legal challenge to what the White House said was anti-consumer behavior. American CEO Robert Isom testified in October that the carrier was hindered in markets like New York and Boston because of the head start that Delta Air Lines and others had as blockbuster mergers shrunk the industry over the last two decades.
“The question before the Court is whether the NEA (Northeast Alliance) suppresses or promotes competition,” U.S. District Court Judge Leo Sorkin wrote in his ruling published Friday. “The record supports only one answer. The NEA, operating as it was designed and intended by American and JetBlue, substantially diminishes competition in the domestic market for air travel.”
