JetBlue & British Airways Plan Partnership: Major Or No Big Deal?

JetBlue and British Airways are planning to launch a partnership. The question is, does this suggest that the situation between American and British Airways is souring a bit, or does this point to JetBlue maybe eventually joining oneworld?

JetBlue & British Airways want to codeshare on flights

JetBlue and British Airways have filed with the Department of Transportation (DOT), requesting permission to launch a reciprocal codeshare agreement. The airlines intend to have a codeshare agreement on 92 routes initially, though once approved, they can expand the codeshare at will:

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• JetBlue would codeshare on 17 British Airways routes from London Heathrow (LHR) to destinations in Europe; this means that passengers traveling on JetBlue across the Atlantic could then connect on British Airways to destinations like Berlin (BER), Geneva (GVA), Warsaw (WAW), and more
• British Airways would codeshare on 75 JetBlue routes from New York (JFK) and Boston (BOS) to destinations across the United States; this means that passengers traveling on British Airways across the Atlantic could then connect on JetBlue to destinations like Austin (AUS), Phoenix (PHX), San Diego (SAN), and more

There’s no reason that JetBlue and British Airways wouldn’t be granted permission to have a codeshare agreement, since this is a common level of cooperation between many airlines. As of now, there’s no mention in the filing of any sort of frequent flyer or loyalty reciprocity, but maybe that will come at a later date.

What would this partnership mean for industry dynamics?

Keep in mind that British Airways is part of a transatlantic joint venture with American, along with Finnair, Iberia, and Aer Lingus. This is one of the most powerful joint ventures in the world, and with this, the airlines can coordinate their schedules, fares, and more, and even share revenue.

So given the close cooperation between British Airways and American, one wonders how JetBlue fits into this. Does British Airways have American’s blessing for this, and it’s part of an overall play for all the airlines to eventually cooperate more closely? Is British Airways going behind American’s back here, realizing that American can’t provide the feed that British Airways needs in the Northeast?

There are couple of significant dynamics at play here:

• JetBlue has a close partnership with Aer Lingus (also part of the transatlantic joint venture, plus part of the same airline group as British Airways) and Qatar Airways (which owns a stake in British Airways’ parent company)
• American and JetBlue had the Northeast Alliance, whereby the two airlines had really close cooperation, but it ended up being blocked by the Department of Justice (DOJ)

The way I see it, this could go one of a couple of ways and I honestly think both scenarios are roughly equally likely.

On one end of the spectrum, maybe British Airways is frustrated by American’s lack of connectivity in many markets, in particular in the Northeast. Places like New York and Boston are among British Airways’ most important airports, yet American isn’t able to provide as much connectivity there as British Airways needs, and wants JetBlue to help with that. If that’s the case, this may have very well been done without consulting American.

But on the other end of the spectrum, one can’t help but wonder if American might be in on this, and if JetBlue might even eventually be heading in the direction of joining oneworld:

• We know that JetBlue is struggling financially, as the airline is having a hard time figuring out its place in the market
• American and JetBlue had a close partnership that was blocked by the DOJ; while they can’t cooperate as closely as they did (where they were exchanging slots and coordinating routes), the judge did say they could have a more standard partnership in the future, like what American has with Alaska (which is great for consumers)
• The American and JetBlue partnership being blocked is still being litigated at the moment, which is why American can’t try to restart any sort of a partnership with JetBlue
• American really still needs JetBlue in the Northeast, in order to pursue its strategy of offering long haul service from there, given American’s limited domestic network from JFK
• Long term, I can’t help but wonder if American may want to acquire JetBlue; obviously a different administration would need to be in the White House for that to be approved, though

So yeah, I’m not sure what to think here. Is British Airways just tired of American’s lack of connectivity in some areas, and is going behind its partner’s back? Or are they both in on it, and it’s part of a bigger strategy to once again use JetBlue’s Northeast presence to boost the transatlantic joint venture?

Bottom line

JetBlue and British Airways intend to launch a codeshare agreement. With this, JetBlue will place its code on some European British Airways flights from London, while British Airways will place its code on some US JetBlue flights from Boston and New York.

What makes this development so interesting is the close partnership that British Airways has with American. I’m very curious to see how this plays out…

What do you make of this JetBlue and British Airways codeshare plan?