Turbulence in the Courts: JetBlue Suffers from Faulty Antitrust Actions

Authors

Rudolph Veiga

First Page

223

Abstract

Recently, the Department of Justice has become the leading force behind antitrust challenges against airline alliances and mergers. Unfortunately, it is difficult for someone to determine when the department will challenge an airline joint venture because the department has not consistently challenged all alliances or mergers over the last few years. JetBlue Airways defended itself against two different antitrust challenges by the department—one against the Northeast Alliance with American Airlines, and one against the acquisition of Spirit Airlines—and JetBlue lost both. The Department of Justice did not challenge the merger of Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, which was finalized just before the department’s challenge against the Spirit and JetBlue acquisition was complete, even though there were enough similarities in that Alaska-Hawaiian merger to both challenged actions that should have resulted in more consistent actions by the department or results in the court. Therefore, JetBlue suffered from inconsistent application of the antitrust laws that dismembered its joint ventures. The United States Supreme Court declined to hear American Airlines’ appeal for the Northeast Alliance, but the Court should have heard the case because there were legal errors that deserved a final chance at being corrected. While it will be impossible for JetBlue and American to reinstate the Northeast Alliance because the United States Supreme Court declined to hear American Airlines’ appeal, or for JetBlue to reinstate the Spirit merger because the parties declined to appeal the trial court’s ruling, this Note argues that JetBlue may have the unique opportunity to use these defeats as a lesson that enables JetBlue to develop a joint venture that may dodge any challenges by the Department of Justice—and that is exactly what it is trying to do in its new partnership with United Airlines named “Blue Sky.”

Recommended Citation

Rudolph Veiga, Turbulence in the Courts: JetBlue Suffers from Faulty Antitrust Actions, 20 Brook. J. Corp. Fin. & Com. L. 223 (2025).
Available at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/bjcfcl/vol20/iss1/12