BOSTON (Legal Newsline) - The federal government and a group of states are suing American Airlines and JetBlue Airways over what they call anticompetitive business practices.
The United States of America, the District of Columbia and the states of Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Virginia and Pennsylvania filed a federal complaint on September 21 in the District of Massachusetts against American Airlines Group Inc. and JetBlue Airways Corporation for the “Northeast Alliance.”
According to the complaint, American Airlines Group Inc., the largest airline in the world, and JetBlue Airways Corporation, a uniquely disruptive low-cost airline, have entered into an unprecedented and anticompetitive pact, called the “Northeast Alliance," in which the two have quietly agreed to share their revenues and coordinate which routes to fly, when to fly them, who will fly them, and what size planes to use on flights to and from four major airports: Boston Logan International Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport.
Plaintiffs allege the alliance will eliminate significant competition between American and JetBlue that has led to lower fares and higher quality service for consumers traveling to and from those airports. It will also closely tie JetBlue’s fate to that of American, diminishing JetBlue’s incentives to compete with American in markets across the country, the suit claims.
Plaintiffs seek for the Northeast Alliance be adjudged to violate Section 1 of the Sherman Act, Defendants be permanently enjoined from continuing and restrained from further implementing the Northeast Alliance, and an award for all costs and attorney's fees. Plaintiffs are represented by various attorneys from each state and The United States of America.
U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts case number 1:21-cv-11558