JetBlue wants a closer relationship with American Airlines. British Airways also wants a closer relationship with American Airlines, though on its terms. I see that as an essential common link in the new partnership between JetBlue and British Airways.
JetBlue-British Airways Partnership Is About American Airlines
JetBlue and British Airways plan to codeshare, with JetBlue selling tickets to 17 onward European destinations from London (LHR) and British Airways selling connections on 39 JetBlue flights to Boston (BOS) Or New York (JFK).
At the outset, you might assume such a move would infuriate American Airlines. After all, JetBlue is a competitor (after the US Department of Justice blocked close cooperation between JetBlue and American) and its unprofitable transatlantic presence reduces yields on American and British Airways.
But American Airlines is also weak in New York and the New York – London route is the crème de la crème among bread and butter routes for British Airways. In short: British Airways is not picking up the connecting traffic it needs to fill its large premium cabins, which is fundamental to its business model.
View From The Wing also notes that the relationship between American and British Airways has soured over disagreements concerning the management of corporate accounts (a far more essential element of the British Airways business model than that of American Airlines, but one that American Airlines has reduced focus on as it seeks to funnel customers to direct booking channels). The generous status match British Airways offered to US residents also reportedly “infuriated” senior leadership at AA.
TLDR: British Airways remains highly reliant on American Airlines, but is not happy with AA’s direction concerning both commercial decisions and route network. Thus, a relationship with JetBlue may make up for some of the discontent.
But JetBlue is not merely a pawn in a family dispute between American Airlines and British Airways. American still sees value in JetBlue which is why it is appealing the Department of Justice’s crusade against its own closer relationship with JetBlue. Meanwhile, British Airways just wants to fill its planes: its cozying up with JetBlue may be seen just as much as a concrete plea for American Airlines to take its needs more seriously than any sort of deliberate slight.
JetBlue To Join Oneworld?
Some are already hoping that JetBlue will join the oneworld alliance. After all, it already partners with Qatar Airways (a oneworld member) and Aer Lingus (a former…and likely a future…oneworld member). Alliances are overrated these days, but I see the future of JetBlue in the oneworld alliance more linked to Alaska Airlines than anyone else.
Yes, I am still predicting that Alaska Airlines and JetBlue will merge after the Alaska – Hawaiian Airlines merger is completed. The route networks are complementary and the idea of a powerful fifth carrier in the USA to compete with American, Delta, Southwest, and United probably would help consumers more than hurt them.
But if a combined JetBlue and Alaska are oneworld members with close ties to American and British, would consumers actually win? I picture it like the last decade, when pre-merger relationships between United – Continental and Delta – Northwest offered coordinated competition even though those carriers still technically competed against one another.
The other possibility is a merger between JetBlue and American Airlines during a Republican administration. I find that a tricker prospect since JetBlue and American compete on so many routes. My feeling is that even a GOP-led government would hesitate before allowing such a move. Thus, I am speculating:
- The relationship between American Airlines and British Airways is deep and remains of prime importance to both carriers
- Both carriers want a closer relationship with JetBlue
- JetBlue will become more closely aligned with both carriers, initially through this partnership with British Airways and later through a scaled-back Northeast Alliance with American Airlines
- Longer term, JetBlue is more likely to merge with Alaska Airlines and the combined carrier will work closely with British Airways and American Airlines without being acquired
CONCLUSION
British Airways and JetBlue have filed for a new codeshare relationship that will strengthen ties and aims to bolster both carriers. Rather than see this as a slight against American Airlines, I would see it as part of a longer-term plan to make JetBlue into a friendly competitor rather than a fierce one. But it’s also a sign that the AA-BA axis is not working to BA’s satisfaction: it wants more feeder traffic and perhaps this partnership will move AA to take its needs more seriously.
> Read More: Is American Airlines Doing JetBlue’s Bidding In Northeast Alliance Appeal?
I don’t wish a closer relationship with AA .
JetBlue is slowly but surely failing. It’s transatlantic network is an unprofitable vanity project. It’s new found focus on Caribbean and San Juan markets in particular is mind-boggling (hello, SJU-CUN???) JetBlue is American’s solution to its never ending New York (and to a lesser extent, Boston) problem. Eventually, these two will find the way to combine.
You sound like a sad Frontier airlines employee.. Whats failing is the yellow bus in the sky…
Jetblue has lead in SJU and will continue its focus where it’s strong.
Lots of wishful thinking in you comments.. good for a laugh
AA and BA have a revenue-sharing joint-venture for transatlantic service. If BA grows its operations to/from the US courtesy of better connectivity with JetBlue, it may not be entirely a good thing for an AA unless AA’s share of TATL seats can rise to the occasion of keeping its share of the pie and/or growing enough revenue overall from the TATL pie that AA finds it financially beneficial. But with JetBlue retreating from TATL service, I take this BA-JetBlue move to be more or less an attempt by AA and BA to do a runaround around the regulators’ opposition to JetBlue being taken over by a legacy major airline in a governmentally-favored-and-waivered TATL joint venture.
If JetBlue want a relationship for onwards travel from LHR they would be much better seeking it with *A than BA.
JetBlue use the *A terminal which is the best of the LHR terminals by a very long way and the only IAG carrier there for reasons lost in history is EI but then JetBlue are now serving DUB anyway.
Tranferring to a BA flight in T3 or T5 is not an experience anyone will want and I doubt many will wish to do it twice.
Equally, if they want connections into Europe, AMS and KLM are a much better solution than this one.
You are absolutely correct about transfers in LHR.
The minimum connecting time for that would be AT LEAST two hours if not more and B6’s flights wouldn’t connect to/from anything anyway.
And the same goes for JFK…why would you arrive at T8 on BA, clear CBP and then schlep to T5 for a connecting flight?
Lastly…BA flies to every major business hub and most of the bigger Caribbean destinations so I don’t see compliment.
Yuk! All around, Yuk!
Look, the benefit of this alliance is that AA has the US domestic market share that BA is looking to tap into from connecting International flights. It’s has also been made clear by AA that they are cutting out their loss making international flying and concentrating on their domestic travel to return to profitability. AA passengers looking to fly internationally can do so through British Airways which is a true international carrier, so this is a win for AA who also wants access to international markets for its customers through BA. Personally I think BA offers a much better product than AA. For one their Flight attendants actually treat you decently. American Airlines has terrible customer service, which is probably why they have been losing money internationally. International travelers won’t put up with being treated like crap by AA flight attendants.
And let’s not kid ourselves JetBlue is is the junior partner in this. It makes sense for them to have agreements with AA and BA. They’re not stepping on anyone’s toes as this has already been discussed beforehand.
It’s ludicrous to say BA needs AA more than AA needs BA. Let’s stop the flag waving RA RA propaganda. This is an alliance because it suits both carriers. Pure and simple. British Airways is big enough and has enough international flying especially into New York that if it doesn’t suit them they’ll have an alliance with someone else.
Last week JetBlue touched down at Edinburgh Airport for the first time with its daily services between Edinburgh and New York now underway.
It’s great news for Scotland… but also this route is perfect for US visitors to ‘open jaw’ their visits to the UK. It’s a brilliant marketing opportunity especially when LHR to EDI can be booked on a B6 flight number (codeshare on BA). JetBlue could really go to to town in marketing this itinerary. If they build a booking widget to make booking that itinerary super quick & easy they could easily see significant uplift in bookings.
They could do the same for visiting London and other European cities served by JetBlue.
If you look at the DOT filing none of the code shares on the UK side are domestic (which was surprising) they are all into mainland Europe (think BER, ZRH, FRA, MUC etc and some that don’t make sense such as AMS despite B6 flying there themselves), thus you could not book LHR-EDI on a B6 ticket. B6 certainly did need a connecting partner in London rather than relying on point to point and connecting US side only so at least they have that.