The low-cost airline JetBlue and American Airlines want to cooperate in a strategic partnership. Now the pilots of JetBlue reject a provisional agreement that should facilitate the implementation of the cooperation.

The US trade union ALPA demands extensive job guarantees from management. It is feared that numerous cockpit positions could be deleted as a result of the cooperation. The job guarantee is a major concern of the pilots, emphasize the employee representatives.

A spokesman for the airline concerned stated in an initial reaction that they were disappointed with the result of the vote among the pilots. The media officer also emphasized that JetBlue and the ALPA union had worked closely together in drawing up the preliminary agreement.

American union also has concerns

There are also concerns about the APA union, which represents American Airlines' pilots. A spokesman said American codeshare has never resulted in more jobs. It is feared that the cooperation with JetBlue will at least have an impact on domestic routes and that fewer American Airlines pilots will be needed there. The management emphasizes, however, that the scope of the partnership should correspond to that which is already being carried out by third-party airlines.

Antitrust approval has not yet been obtained. The US competition authority is examining the planned collaboration between JetBlue and American Airlines. The latter airline hopes that additional feeder flights, which are created through code sharing with the low-cost airline, can improve the utilization of international connections, especially on long-haul routes. The JetBlue pilots obviously have massive concerns that their jobs are at stake or that their employer could be absorbed by American Airlines.