BOSTON Reuters - The US Department of Justice urged a judge to restrain JetBlue Airways and American Airlines from entering into any partnerships with other airlines akin to their now-scrapped Northeast Alliance, which the judge deemed anticompetitive.
American Airlines and JetBlue are winding down their arrangement announced in 2020, where they joined forces for flights in and out of New York City and Boston.
In May, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston sided with the Justice Department and six states in a lawsuit challenging the partnership, finding that it violated federal antitrust law.
The airline had subsequently decided to terminate the alliance while preparing to defend a $3.8 billion purchase of Spirit Airlines in court in a separate Justice Department antitrust case seeking to block the deal.
The Justice Department has been pushing for more restrictions on the companies, with the Northeast Alliance expected to be fully skirted by January.
In a hearing Tuesday, the Justice Department attorney William Jones urged Sorokin to restrict JetBlue and American Airlines from not just reentring into a similar alliance together for the next two years but also with any other domestic airline.
We think by prohibiting these deals we are protecting against a recurring recurrence of this in a slightly different form, he said.
In a public meeting, Jones urged Sorokin to order the appointment of an external antitrust compliance monitor who for the next five years would have full access to their employees, books and records to ensure compliance with the judge's order.
American Airlines lawyer Daniel Wall, a lawyer, said the appointment of the monitor was highly unusual and said restrictions on deals with other airlines were a step too far.
Respectfully, we think they are asking you to do something beyond the authority of the court, he said.
Sorokin appeared cautiously, noting that his decision had focused on a specific facts and circumstances. He said he plans a very fast ruling on the Justice Department's demands.