American Airlines has appealed the ruling that led a US judge to order the company to end its Northeast Alliance with JetBlue Airways.
The airline submitted a brief with the 1St The U.S. District Court of Appeals in Boston to seek to overturn the ruling, saying the precedent could “discourage a fruitful and lawful partnership” if left “unchecked,” despite JetBlue confirming it would end the partnership after the initial decision.
American's letter read: “In a sweeping decision, the district court found that a joint venture between American and JetBlue Airlines violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act in the absence of any showing of consumer harm and based on characteristics inherent in joint ventures that courts have long recognized creation of pre-competitive effectiveness'.
The Northeast Alliance saw the two airlines work together on a “virtual network” of code sharing, slot swapping and new routes to try to challenge Delta and United's dominance in the US Northeast region.
The alliance was challenged in court by the country's Department of Justice (DoJ), which had described it as a “de facto merger” of the companies' operations in New York and Boston that risked reducing the incentive for airlines to compete in other markets. with Judge Leo Sorokin ultimately ruling with the DoJ.
But American's appeal argues that the ruling “contradicts decades of precedent” on joint ventures and ignored a lack of evidence that the alliance was harmful to customers, saying the ruling treats “even the most favorable partnerships as inherently anti-competitive”.
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While JetBlue chose not to appeal, choosing instead to focus on litigation against its merger with Spirit, the order means the two airlines are barred from entering into a similar deal for a decade and requires them to notify the DoJ before entering into other agreements. .
