JetBlue Airways, seeking to protect a planned $3.8 billion purchase of Spirit Airlines, said that it would follow a U.S. judge's May order that it end an alliance with American Airlines, Reuters reported. The New York-based carrier said while it "strongly" disagrees, it would not appeal the court's ruling. JetBlue said it had informed American last week of its decision to terminate the three-year-old alliance, which allowed the two carriers to coordinate flights and pool revenue. American said that it still planned to appeal the ruling. American is the largest U.S. airline by fleet size and JetBlue is the sixth largest. JetBlue said terminating its alliance with American renders "entirely moot" the U.S. Justice Department's (DOJ) objections that led it to file suit to block its merger deal with Spirit, which would be the biggest in the U.S. airline industry since American and US Airways merged in 2013. "This decision will enable us to focus even more on our combination with Spirit," CEO Robin Hayes said. Andre Barlow, an antitrust attorney at Doyle, Barlow & Mazard PLLC, said he did not think that terminating the alliance would change JetBlue's odds in its legal battle over the Spirit deal. "I don't think it helps," Barlow said. "It's even better for the DOJ." The alliance's dissolution is a setback to American's strategy to grow revenue by relying more heavily on alliance partners to ferry passengers in uncompetitive markets.
