JetBlue Airways Corp. plane at Ronald Reagan Nationwide Airport (DCA) in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., on Tuesday, Might 25, 2021.
Stefani Reynolds | Bloomberg | Getty Photographs
American Airlines and JetBlue Airways on Monday requested a U.S. decide to dismiss a lawsuit that the Justice Division and 6 states filed over the carriers’ partnership within the Northeast.
The lawsuit, filed in federal courtroom in Massachusetts in September, alleges that the airways’ so-called Northeast Partnership, violates antitrust legislation, would scale back competitors within the area and will drive up airfares and decrease service high quality.
That partnership lets American and JetBlue promote one another’s flights to and from the Northeast U.S., together with often congested airports in Boston and the New York Metropolis space. The airways had argued that the partnership, authorized on the finish of the Trump administration, would permit them to higher compete towards Delta Air Lines and United Airlines within the area.
American and JetBlue stated Monday that the Justice Division and different plaintiffs haven’t proven that the alliance has harm competitors or pushed up fares and in consequence the lawsuit ought to be tossed.
“The NEA has been underway for 9 months, but Plaintiffs don’t allege that it has precipitated a single greater value, any discount in high quality or the slightest discount in output,” the airways wrote.
The Justice Division declined to remark.
