Florida Joins Fight Against Partnership Between American Airlines & JetBlue
TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) - Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has joined the U.S. Department of Justice and other states in an antitrust lawsuit that seeks to block a partnership between American Airlines and JetBlue.
The 42-page lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Massachusetts, targets a so-called "Northeast Alliance" in which the airlines would share revenues and coordinate flights at airports in Boston, New York, and Newark, N.J.
The lawsuit contends the partnership will eliminate competition between the airlines at those airports and reduce JetBlue's incentives to compete with Americans in other areas of the country.
"The airline industry is a highly concentrated industry," Moody said in a prepared statement Wednesday.
"The challenged alliance between American and JetBlue will only increase that concentration and hurt Floridians and Florida's interests. I am especially concerned with this alliance's likely effect on smaller, more regional airports in Florida where these two airlines are, at least in one instance, the only two airlines flying routes."
Other states taking part in the lawsuit are Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, along with the District of Columbia.
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