American Airlines is seeking more than a million dollars in compensation from JetBlue after the collapse of the two airlines’ Northeast Alliance (NEA). The carriers initially joined forces in 2020 to challenge Delta and United’s dominance in the lucrative Boston and New York air travel markets. However, the deal fell apart due to falling foul of US antitrust laws, which a court deemed to be anticompetitive. However, American insists that financial obligations for flights completed during the partnership remain due.
Coming almost two years after the federal court dismantled the alliance, American Airlines has filed a lawsuit against JetBlue, stating that the New York-based airline still owes the Fort Worth carrier millions in unpaid fees and other charges. American said in the suit that the NEA was originally established to “expand each airline’s network and enhance services for passengers” by optimizing schedules, equipment assignments, and other logistics.
As reported by Courthouse News, on April 29, 2025, American Airlines filed the suit in the Texas Business Court, claiming JetBlue has failed to make payments exceeding $1 million that it owes from the terminated NEA. At the center of the case being brought by American Airlines is a revenue-sharing mechanism that was established before the NEA became operational to determine how ticket and other revenues generated by the alliance would be split in post-flight reconciliations.
According to American Airlines papers filed relating to the lawsuit, “JetBlue has refused to make payment under the [Mutual Growth Incentive Agreement] of the amount,” adding that JetBlue’s own calculations of the amount owed were 6% adrift from those calculated by American.
Additionally, in the lawsuit, American Airlines says the final judgment terminating the Northeast Alliance explicitly permitted the airlines to “complete the audit, reconciliation, and payment processes outlined in the NEA Agreements to settle their obligations to one another concerning flights flown on or before July 18, 2023.”
American Airlines says it sent JetBlue detailed financial reports and a final invoice on Jan. 9, 2024, covering the period between April 2022 and July 2023, but has received no payment in respect of that final invoice. The airline’s lawsuit is seeking monetary relief exceeding $1 million plus interest, attorney fees, and costs.
The legal fallout continues
This latest round of legal wrangling comes as yet another chapter in the fallout from the failed NEA and that antitrust ruling that eventually broke it apart. Despite the partnership receiving regulatory approval from the outset, it collapsed under federal antitrust scrutiny following a court order outlawing the deal in 2023.
The alliance’s troubles began shortly after it took operational effect in February 2021, when the Department of Justice claimed the deal was anticompetitive. A US District Court judge agreed, writing in May 2023 that “whatever the benefits to American and JetBlue of becoming more powerful in the northeast generally or in their shared rivalry with Delta, such benefits arise from a naked agreement not to compete with one another. Such a pact is just the sort of ‘unreasonable restraint on trade’ the [federal law] was designed to prevent.”
The airlines unsuccessfully appealed the ruling. However, in November 2024, a further judge ruled that the partnership “led to decreased capacity, lower frequencies, or reduced consumer choices on multiple routes, including some that are heavily traveled.”
Then, in January 2025, American Airlines and JetBlue were forced to pay nearly $2 million in legal fees to six US states after losing another lawsuit challenging the airlines’ NEA partnership. The payment was to be shared equally between the two airlines and will go to the District of Columbia and six states, including Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Arizona. The court order specified that the Plaintiff States “shall be paid reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs” by American and JetBlue under Section 16 of the Clayton Act.
