JetBlue on a Tuesday earnings call said it had hoped to announce a new domestic airline partnership during the second quarter. According to Reuters, that partner is United Airlines.
The news agency cited three sources "familiar with the matter" who indicated the partnership would be "quite different" from the arrangement JetBlue had with American Airlines for its Northeast Alliance.
The speculation comes two days after American announced it, too, had been in talks to form a new partnership with JetBlue, but that those discussions fell apart, and then American sued JetBlue for more than $1 million owed from the dismantled NEA.
After a JetBlue earnings call in late January in which the carrier's CEO, Joanna Geraghty, told an analyst the airline was in conversations with a number of carriers about a potential new partnership, rumors abounded that United would be that partner. The Chicago-based carrier denied any merger or acquisition plans in a regulatory filing.
United declined to comment. JetBlue in an email reiterated the information shared during Tuesday's call: "We've previously said we are talking to multiple airlines about a new partnership. We have been making good progress and expect to announce a partnership agreement in the second quarter."
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