On Monday, the Supreme Court declined an appeal from American Airlines to take up a review of the partnership between the airline and JetBlue in the Northeast.  JetBlue did not join this appeal.

The justices turned away the appeal by American Airlines of a lower court’s decision in a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Justice Department that led to the end of the proposed “Northeast Alliance,” which would have allowed the two carriers to coordinate flights and pool revenue. The Justice Department had said the case isn’t worth the Supreme Court’s time because JetBlue terminated the partnership about two years ago.

The partnership which would have seen the two airlines combine their slots and gates at New York’s LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport, New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport and Boston’s Logan International Airport was rejected as the Justice Department argued it would hurt consumers and decrease competition in the air travel market. The Justice Department urged the Supreme Court to decline the American Airlines appeal on June 30 and let the lower rulings stand.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in court filings that “the First Circuit’s application of uncontroversial antitrust principles to the district court’s unchallenged factual findings does not conflict with any decision of another court of appeals or otherwise warrant this Court’s review,”

Meanwhile ,American Airlines called the Supreme Court’s decision not to take up the case ‘disappointing,’ arguing that the ruling by the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had wrongly embraced a hostility to collaboration between businesses and invalidated a joint venture that increased market-wide competition. American Airlines said in a statement that “the Northeast Alliance was designed to increase competition and expand customer options in the Northeast, which it clearly did during the time it was allowed to operate.”

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