Washington, D.C. — Following news that the US Department of Transportation has approved the United Airlines-JetBlue “Blue Sky” Collaboration, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement. 

“President Donald Trump and DOT Secretary Sean Duffy met their first real test of antitrust and competition enforcement, and unfortunately for air travelers, the DOT failed,” said William J. McGee, Senior Fellow for Aviation & Travel at the American Economic Liberties Project. “The United Airlines-JetBlue Airways Blue Sky ‘Collaboration’ may fall short of a merger, but it further consolidates an overly concentrated industry and ensures two more key players are partners rather than competitors. At a time when American, Delta, Southwest, and United control 80% of the market, the last thing travelers need is more consolidation. The DOT has clear authority to prevent anti-competitive measures, but instead it quietly rubber-stamped a pseudo merger that reduces, competition, hampers innovation, and hands United key JFK slots — all at the expense of passengers.”

JetBlue has worn out its thesaurus while courting one third of the nation’s scheduled passenger airlines: Within the last two years it attempted a merger with Spirit Airlines, an alliance with American Airlines, and then in May announced this partnership or collaboration with United Airlines. Unlike the Biden administration–which fought and won federal court cases blocking JetBlue’s merger with Spirit and Northeast Alliance with American–the current DOT quietly and opaquely rubber-stamped further airline consolidation in an industry that hasn’t been this concentrated since the 1910s. The Department issued no press releases about Blue Sky, even after Spirit Airlines filed a complaint against the collaboration, thereby forcing DOT to open a comments docket (without a deadline, thus preventing some interested parties from weighing in).

The harms of Blue Sky are real: While both airlines claim they won’t coordinate schedules or pricing, they’re sharing interlining of flights, loyalty program benefits, and online sales platforms. And United’s motivation is clear, since it regains abandoned takeoff and landing slots at New York’s JFK International Airport, a “slot-controlled” facility the Federal Aviation Administration has closed to new entry. Blue Sky gives United seven round-trip slots at JFK, in addition to both carriers sharing slots in Newark.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.