JetBlue and United Airlines in a Thursday joint filing urged the U.S. Department of Transportation to “dismiss or disregard” Spirit Airlines’ complaint against the carrier’s planned loyalty partnership.
Spirit on June 24 in a DOT filing requested the agency prohibit the planned deal, announced May 29 and dubbed “Blue Sky,” on the grounds that it was anticompetitive, would raise fares, weaken other “value airlines” and “siphon off customers attracted by access to the United loyalty program.”
Spirit’s complaints echoed objections to the Northeast Alliance, the partnership that existed between JetBlue and American Airlines before a federal judge in 2023 ordered its dismantling.
In Thursday’s DOT filing, JetBlue and United called Spirit’s request “unwarranted and unnecessary,” adding that the ultra-low-cost carrier “mischaracterized and inaccurately described the scope and effect of Blue Sky.”
The two carriers reiterated statements made on and since the deal’s announcement: the partnership would be an interline agreement and not a codeshare, the carriers would remain independent and competitive and there would be no revenue sharing, no joint network planning and no schedule optimization—which were elements of the Northeast Alliance.
The filing also cited JetBlue’s newly announced upcoming nonstop service between Newark and Las Vegas and expanded service between Newark and Los Angeles, “in direct competition with United’s existing services on these routes,” and in a footnote said that JetBlue will not join the Star Alliance or any of United’s immunized joint ventures as part of Blue Sky.
In addition, the filing argued that “time is of the essence for JetBlue,” which lost $3 billion since the Covid-19 pandemic and has not reported an annual profit since 2019. “Given the well-documented challenges facing smaller carriers, JetBlue believes that prompt review and implementation of the Blue Sky collaboration is essential to preserving competition and consumer choice—and to providing smaller carriers a viable path forward, something which was foreclosed by the previous Administration,” according to the filing.
Spirit did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Spirit Urges DOT to Quash JetBlue, United Deal
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