The United States Department of Transportation (DOT) has approved the JetBlue Airways (B6, New York JFK) and United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) 'Blue Sky' collaboration, the companies announced in a statement. The airlines are now able to proceed to implementation despite calls against it from low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines (NK, Fort Lauderdale International).
During a JetBlue second-quarter investors call, the airline’s chief executive, Joanna Geraghty, said the collaboration will benefit customers and increase the utility of the carrier’s loyalty scheme while enabling JetBlue to sell nearly all of its flights on United’s website “via a traditional interline agreement and vice versa.”
Spirit objected to the partnership by arguing that it was “anti-competitive” and similar to the Northeast Alliance joint venture JetBlue had with American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth), which was struck down by a federal judge in 2023. The low-cost carrier said that labelling Blue Sky as an interline deliberately obscured the true scope and anti-competitive potential of the partnership.
In addition to the perceived joint benefits, JetBlue will provide United access to slots at New York JFK for up to seven daily round-trip flights out of Terminal 6, starting from 2027. Both carriers will exchange eight flight timings at New York Newark.
Discussing the slots that will be delivered to United, Geraghty said JetBlue did not know how United would use them - and it would be illegal to have conversations on that topic, she added - but the company made “certain assumptions in our model as to what the impact of United flying those swaps may be, and that is included in the value of the overall deal.”
United Airlines currently has zero access to JFK but is the largest player at Newark, holding 67.3% of the overall capacity, according to ch-aviation schedules data.
Improved AOG levels
Ursula Hurley, JetBlue Airways’ chief financial officer, said during the call that there had been improvements in the number of aircraft on the ground from the ongoing Pratt & Whitney engine recalls.
“The company now expects to average fewer than ten aircraft on the ground for the remainder of 2025, down from mid-to-high teens,” Hurley said, adding that 2025 now represents the peak, with the number set to reduce in 2026 and fully resolve by the end of 2027.
JetBlue posted a net loss of USD74 million for the second quarter of 2025.
JetBlue Airways’ fleet currently comprises 317 aircraft, according to ch-aviation data: fifty A220-300s, 130 A320-200s, sixty-three A321-200s, twenty-eight A321-200NXs, eleven A321-200NX(LR)s, and thirty-five E190s.
