American & JetBlue Call Off Partnership Talks: What’s Next?

JetBlue doesn’t belong to any major alliance, but we know that in recent times, the airline has been in discussions with multiple US airlines about a possible partnership. There’s now an interesting update.

American no longer pursuing JetBlue collaboration

Back in 2021, American and JetBlue launched the Northeast Alliance. This came at a time where American was adding long haul service out of New York (JFK), but was otherwise struggling to compete with Delta and United at their NYC-area hubs.

A judge ultimately ended up blocking the arrangement, arguing it was anticompetitive. The issue wasn’t the partnership as such, but rather how the airlines were coordinating slots, schedules, routes, etc, which was almost similar in nature to a joint venture. Since the agreement was blocked, there has been talk of the two airlines pursuing a scaled back partnership, especially in recent times.

@xJonNYC now reports that these conversations have terminated. Per a memo at the airline:

We filed a lawsuit against JetBlue today to recover money owed to American following the unwinding of the Northeast Alliance. We understandably tabled this claim while we were in discussions with JetBlue but now that those conversations have concluded, we need to address the accounting and reconciliation following the termination of the NEA.

AA: "Recent talks to partner with B6 have gone kaput, so AA is on its own in NY for foreseeable future" (AA related, not an official quote -from- AA)— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) April 28, 2025 at 5:09 PM

We don’t have a whole lot more information about why negotiations broke down, though I’d say that’s pretty significant. One can’t help but wonder which party decided this didn’t make sense. For that matter, just because talks have been called off, doesn’t mean that they couldn’t be resumed again in the future.

What does this mean for American & JetBlue?

American plans to continue its strategy of maintaining and growing its presence in New York. It’s anyone’s guess what that will actually look like, given how much the airline has struggled to succeed in New York on its own. This gets at how United CEO Scott Kirby has said that he doesn’t think American can become a premium airline, because you need to be dominant in major markets to be successful, and American is just too far behind.

I feel like American would’ve only had upside in a partnership with JetBlue, which is why I feel like it was JetBlue that called off the talks, rather than American.

Were talks called off between JetBlue and American so that JetBlue could instead pursue something with United? We know that United is serious about some sort of a deal with JetBlue, given that Kirby views United leaving JFK as one of the carrier’s biggest mistakes. He clearly feels that having a presence in JFK is the key to overtaking Delta, and even said that with any possible merger activity, “I think the ball is going to be in JetBlue’s court.” Kirby is certainly saying the right things for someone looking to gain favor with regulators.

This is all speculation, but that’s my reading of the tea leaves. Who knows, though…

Bottom line

American claims that potential partnership talks with JetBlue have been called off. Of course the partnership between the two carriers ended a couple of years back, when a judge blocked the agreement. But there was nothing preventing the airlines from launching a more scaled back partnership, which could’ve still been mutually beneficial.

American isn’t willing to give up its JFK presence, but also seemingly isn’t able to grow its regional network there, to turn New York into a global hub. So it seems clear that American could benefit a lot from JetBlue. One certainly wonders what’s going on in the background here, and what this says about other conversations that JetBlue executives are having.

What do you make of this update?