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March 31, 2010
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JetBlue and American Airlines Announce Strategic Connection Deal at JFK and Boston: Confirmed

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By: Matt Molnar
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A JetBlue Airbus A320 (N661JB Let the Blue Times Roll) on its take-off roll zips past a now-retired American Airlines Airbus A300 (N14077) at JFK Airport. (Photo by Matt Molnar)

UPDATE 9:10AM EDT

An actual codeshare is out of the cards for now, but the story broken by @flyingwithfish and originally posted here overnight seems to be mostly correct, with a few additional details. American Airlines has announced a groundbreaking and multi-faceted deal with JetBlue which includes smoothing connections between each carrier’s flights on international and non-competing domestic routes and involves a total of four airports.

The cornerstone of the deal is an interline agreement enabling jetBlue flights at Boston Logan (BOS) and New York Kennedy (JFK) to seamlessly connect with American Airlines flights to a dozen destinations in Europe, Asia and South America. The deal will also give incoming AA passengers connections to 18 of jetBlue’s US destinations on which the carriers do not compete.

Slots will be swapped, as well. The initially reported eight AA slot-pairs at Reagan National (DCA) in Washington will indeed be transferred to JetBlue. In addition, jetBlue will receive one slot-pair at White Plains (HPN), while handing over 12 JFK slot-pairs to American.

DEVELOPING…

JetBlue Airways and American Airlines will announce an international codeshare agreement on Wednesday, according to travel blogger Steve Frischling, aka flyingwithfish via his Twitter account, citing reliable sources.

In addition to giving JetBlue access to previously untapped markets overseas, the New York-based airline would also gain entry to Reagan National Airport (DCA) in Washington through the transfer of eight slots from American.

The ability to market and connect domestic fliers to international routes would give JetBlue an instant leg up over the nation’s other large low-cost carriers such as Southwest, which to date have not secured any overseas arrangements.

Such an arrangement could certainly upset jetBlue’s relationship with Lufthansa, which owns a minority stake and with which jetBlue currently operates codeshares on flights to and from Germany. American competes with Lufthansa on several US-Germany routes, and through their opposing alliances compete on hundreds of other routes.

Further details, such as which flights would be included were not available. Neither JetBlue nor American would confirm nor deny the reports at press time.

This post will be updated as more details emerge.

DEVELOPING…