Airlines Will Watch Closely the Biden-Era Scrutiny of the American-JetBlue Partnership

A little more than a decade ago, a Big Bang of mergers winnowed the U.S. airline industry down from more than a dozen major airlines to just four. Delta acquired Northwest; United acquired Continental; American merged with US Airways; and Southwest took over AirTran. A few years after this, a fifth large carrier was born when Alaska bought Virgin America in 2016 (after both American and JetBlue were said to be interested in Richard Branson's U.S. airline). Interestingly enough, both of those airlines found themselves in headlines on Wednesday about antitrust scrutiny. But before we go there, it's important to note that by the end of the Obama administration, regulators and many in the industry said enough was enough. Consolidation had gone too far, reducing customer choice, raising fares, and cutting off access to many of the smaller cities airlines used to serve. But airlines argued, accurately, that the chronically money-losing industry had turned around, generating years of profits. Flush with profits reaped by consolidation, American CEO Doug Parker famously said no U.S. carrier would ever lose money again. Until a global pandemic struck, that is. So this led JetBlue into American's arms. Realizing regulators woul