United Airlines plans to return to JFK -- again -- in new partnership with JetBlue
Source: NBC News/CNBC
May 29, 2025, 7:36 AM EDT / Source: CNBC
United Airlines has a new friend in Queens. The airline is returning to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport again, this time through a partnership with JetBlue Airways. The partnership, called Blue Sky, will allow JetBlue customers to earn frequent-flyer miles on United and vice versa. It also includes reciprocal loyalty benefits like priority boarding and roomier seats for travelers with elite status.
Some aspects of the partnership, which the carriers announced Thursday, will begin as early as the fall, though the airlines didn’t provide exact timing. They also did not provide financial details of the deal. JetBlue’s leaders have long said they need a partnership to better compete against larger airlines like United and their shared rival Delta Air Lines.
The new partnership stops short of the flight coordination that JetBlue had in its former alliance in the Northeast with American Airlines, which was struck down by a federal court on antitrust grounds two years ago. Last year, a judge blocked JetBlue’s plan to buy struggling budget carrier Spirit. “This collaboration with United is a bold step forward for the industry — one that brings together two customer-focused airlines to deliver more choices for travelers and value across our networks,” JetBlue CEO Joanna Geraghty said in a news release.
United left JFK in 2015, and current CEO Scott Kirby has called that a mistake because moving transcontinental flights to Newark allowed American to win over some corporate clients. It briefly returned in 2021, thanks to a Covid-era lull in traffic at the airport, where capacity is normally tightly controlled by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/travel/united-airlines-plans-return-jfk-new-partnership-jetblue-rcna209664