Source: American Airlines
There have been industry rumors and media reports about American’s discussions with JetBlue. To clarify, American is sharing a letter that was sent to team members today from its Vice Chair and Chief Strategy Officer Steve Johnson.Team,
In recent months, we had been exploring an opportunity to further enhance our network by renewing a partnership with JetBlue. As always in considering partnerships, the objective was to advance our business strategy and enhance our customer proposition by building on American’s network position and giving a partner’s customers access to our global network and the world’s best loyalty program in AAdvantage.
Although we proposed a very attractive proposition to JetBlue and its customers and team, it became clear over time that JetBlue was focused on different business priorities. Ultimately, we were unable to agree on a construct that preserved the benefits of the partnership we envisioned, made sense operationally or financially, or was consistent with the travel rewards and co-branded card business objectives that are so important to our strategy and our customers.
Looking ahead: We remain intently focused on and are competing aggressively in New York and Boston, and we are committed to enhancing our customer proposition in the Northeast. Over the past year, we have added more than 20 new routes from LGA and JFK using the slots returned to us after the NEA ended. Together with our partners, this summer we will offer New York travelers more than 250 daily nonstop flights to 100 markets around the world – from two exceptional terminal facilities, including the best lounges in our system. At JFK, we continue to improve connectivity by co-locating at T8 with our partners, including British Airways, Iberia, JAL, Qatar, and, as we recently announced, Alaska and Hawaiian.
The continued growth in AAdvantage enrollments in the region makes us confident that the New York market is sufficiently large and lucrative to support and value multiple competing networks. And of course, New York is a key business and leisure travel market for customers around the system, so we will also continue to optimize the “halo” effect for our network by providing convenient schedules to New York for travelers who live in cities throughout the U.S. and around the world.
We are proud to connect customers to more than 1,000 destinations around the globe, with an outstanding group of partners who share our belief that alliances are meant to provide customers with the experience they deserve and benefits they prefer. We will continue to build American’s network organically and through growth and investment in these partnerships.
One final note, in case you see it in the news. We filed a lawsuit against JetBlue today to recover money owed to American following the unwinding of the Northeast Alliance. We understandably tabled this claim while we were in discussions with JetBlue, but now that those conversations have concluded, we need to address the accounting and reconciliation following the termination of the NEA.
Thank you for your help as we continue this important work.
Steve