I want to state at the outset that I have no insider information beyond the words of Scott Kirby, the CEO of United Airlines, but those words are quite telling. Is he teasing us or hinting at something more?
United Airlines CEO Teases JetBlue Merger, Right?
Speaking at the annual J.P. Morgan Industrials Conference on March 11, 2025, Scott Kriby was asked, “Excluding Spirit and Frontier, will we see or do we need more industry consolidation? And does United play a role in it?”
Kirby responded in a surprsingly candid way:
I don’t know. I think it’s probably less likely than others think. JetBlue is the obvious candidate. Joanna [Geraghty, the CEO of JetBlue] is going to be here later today. So you can ask her what she thinks. It’s possible. But there’s a lot of challenges, like I look at it from United’s perspective. We have a great plan that is working and mergers are so hard. They’re disruptive.
Your technology team spends two years on the sideline just integrating like I bet a lot of you use the United app. I bet you all think it’s the best app in the world in airlines because it is. Like that kind of investment just gets harder to do. We got some super cool stuff coming for customers this year. That stuff just gets harder and harder to do.
And at United, well, when the business based business plan is working, like the hurdle to go do it, we don’t need a deal for sure. The hurdle to go do a deal gets a whole lot higher. That said, at least at United, I would like to have a bigger presence on the other side of the river at JFK. But man, all the headache, all the brain damage of buying a whole airline to get that, that’s a lot to do. So, yes, really, I think the ball is going to be in JetBlue’s court.
They’re working out a lot of respect for them. They’re working hard. They’re also an airline that focuses on brand loyalty. So from the customer perspective, they have a lot of those sort of core DNA things that are expected there. Also competing with another airline, JFK and Boston that has that too.
So it’s a tough position for it to be in. So it’s sort of their decision on how to sort through that. That’s the only one that I think really is potentially in play one way or another.
United recently took the unusual step of publicly denying any merger talks with JetBlue after this tweet from aviation insider JonNYC:
I have sources telling me UA is heavily looking at B6 — merger or buying assets or something else I’m not remotely sure at the moment.
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) January 29, 2025
But listening to Kirby, it sounds to me, at the very least, like he is very open to a merger with JetBlue…something I first floated in 2017. A combined United-JetBlue would add two additional United hubs in JFK and BOS and with United’s focus on the passenger experience, the product and brand overall would align better than a merger with Spirit…or American.
I don’t read too much into this, but Kirby’s remarks are very telling and at the very least show that United is open to a merger with JetBlue, although it appears almost grudingly.
We’ve asked United Airlines for comments on Kirby’s remarks.
The day this happens, I cancel my United credit card, abandon my points, and never fly them again.
The window of opportunity is short. Maybe it will fly past the feds but it certainly won’t if Kamala Harris or Buttgig becomes poʻtus in 2028.
LOL…right, because Donald Trump will save us all because he’s such a great deal maker! Right, he’s showing the world how smart he is right now, and how much he cares about people like yourself as he does everything in his power to destroy America.
And all you idiots want to do is blame Obama, Hilary Clinton, Kamala Harris….blah, blah, blah. Your ignorance is truly remarkable and really pathetic.
Such a merger would be a catastrophe for consumers with New York effectively becoming a duopoly between Delta and United even if United was forced to divest some JFK slots. The only JetBlue merger that would seem fiscally viable and potentially beneficial to the flying public would be with Alaska since each airline is strong on a different coast. The fleet differences might be too much to overcome though.
United knows that EWR is at capacity, which lead to their meltdown in 2023. They have no real possibilities for growth.
They have been chasing DL’s profitability for 7 years and yet to catch up!
Delta stays winning by A LOT! JonNYC is a LOSER with no credibility.
And Scott Kirby is JEALOUS that it cannot get the superior margins Delta has.
Right on point.
Full blown merger seems unlikely and a PITA as Kirby said. But, some kind of resurgence of the North East Alliance that AA/B6 once had but with UA/B6 in a form that the DOJ wouldn’t fight over would make sense especially with UAs volume of service to BOS and B6’s middling trans-Atlantic service. AA is doing the same thing with AS on the West Coast and over the Pacific. Time will tell.
It would be very clever, under the right terms: UA gets a lot of relatively new aircraft, hubs and market share at JFK and BOS (two airports where they once did have such a presence) and……finally a Florida hub where they can grow. And grow their Latin American routes. This has got to be very tempting for Kirby. It does provide a lot of steps in the path to eventual dominance as US airline #1. Which is the goal, I’d imagine.
I thought JohnNYC wasn’t going to post on “X” anymore?
Guess ped0twitter (bluesky) doesn’t have the same effect since its full of nothing but alphabet people and lefty boomer types.
Amazing & insightful on topic post.
If anything happens it will be highly complex and tightly focused agreement to grease the way through the justice dept. i don’t think a wholesale purchase or “merger’ will work. But i lean towards nothing happening, except maybe B6 joining Star Alliance.