JetBlue and United Airlines are working to form a partnership. JetBlue’s pilots are coming out swinging against it. They say their contract forbids it, while the airline says they know what the contract says and have no plans to violate it.
- The union says the airline hasn’t consulted them on its plan (which makes it even odder to criticize the details of a plan they haven’t seen!)
- The airline says they’ll brief the union on a plan once there is one.
The contract allows JetBlue to enter into codeshares and joint ventures provided they do more flying on their own planes and grow the number of union pilot jobs.
Aviation watchdog JonNYC, who was first to report three months ago that United and JetBlue were talking about a partnership, shares the union’s letter.
here that is: pic.twitter.com/ut6FYJBMLD
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) May 2, 2025
The letter complains about deteriorating morale and also that management hasn’t been willing to make sufficient concessions in bargaining on a new contract (“their refusal to make proposals that are reasonable”). Throw in concerns over technology replacing them (and harkening back to the long-gone days of four-person cockpits) and they see a “direct attack on our profession,” an “attempt to reduce and eventually eliminate pilot jobs, starting with those of us right here at JetBlue.”
At some point technology will do a better job and be safer than a co-pilot. We aren’t necessarily there yet but it is inevitable. At that point ALPA lobbying will be dangerous. In the meantime, however, it’s a complete non-sequitur to the airline partnering with United.
JetBlue’s ALPA chapter opposed the American Airlines Northeast Alliance, too, even though that literally transferred New York airport slots from American to JetBlue and had JetBlue doing more flying. In fact, JetBlue was dedicating aircraft to New York for this growth and because constrained which is why they needed to try to buy Spirit Airlines in the first place – to gain access to more planes and pilots.
It was somewhat odd, then, that JetBlue abandoned the Northeast Alliance after a district court ruled against it on antitrust grounds in order to focus on pursuing the Spirit acquisition (for which it was massively overpaying) since that deal lost its logical without the flying growth that came from partnering with American and gaining those slots to use. After the antitrust ruling they had to return the slots.
And JetBlue has been cutting back flying, and encouraging pilot leave – trying to shrink to profitability (always a challenge) by cutting money-losing routes and stations. They’ve been cutting pilot jobs! A deal with another carrier may be the best path to preserving and growing pilot jobs for he undersized carrier. Today for instance they’re number three in New York. The largest carriers get a disproportionate share of premium passenger traffic which supports the most flying. Teaming up with United could give them the demand to support flying growth.
To be sure, JetBlue pilots won’t want to see their airline’s assets just stripped – transferring New York slots to American. And JetBlue has agreed not to do that!
But it’s odd to come out against a deal that has not been announced, with a deal partner that has not been acknowledged, over details that have not been released. Indeed, lack of a deal has been a threat to their jobs.
I’ve written that the pending partnership between JetBlue and United is going to be bigger than it first appears, though I am uncertain as to those specifics. We know that United partners (likely at least Lufthansa, though probably more) have been briefed on plans for months, which suggests integration or an opportunity beyond just JetBlue frequent flyers earning miles when they fly United.
The JetBlue pilot’s union (ALPA) did not “come out” against a possible United deal. The union sent an INTERNAL email to its members explaining the situation from their perspective. There’s a lot more to that email than the United situation.
and if UA’s pilots’ union is doing their job, they should be complaining too
Said pilots won’t be happy in life if JetBlue goes into Chapter 11 and cuts a bunch of flying and jobs and remaining pilots get a pay cut. Union contracts usually get set aside in bankruptcy. Considering the slow down in hiring all around it might not be a good time to be an unemployed pilot or find yourself starting all over again at the bottom of the seniority ladder.
Maybe first wait for whatever the “plan” will be? Just a thought.
Rumblings around UA is fear that lots of leisure Florida, Mexico (non MEX), Central American and Caribbean flying will dry up and go Blue.
Excuse me but I have a question. “At some point technology will do a better job and be safer than a co-pilot. We aren’t necessarily there yet but it is inevitable”, I would like an explanation of just how this would work if the Pilot, God forbid, has a massive Heart Attack and passes away mid flight, cockpit door closed and bolted and only the dead Pilot has access to open it. Nobody is aware of the dead Pilot to alert anyone of the situation. Who or what flies the plane and who or what lands the plane safely. We all know that many things can happen in mid-flight, to those in the Cockpit or in the Cabin.
Please let me know when this will be implemented as I trust Human beings with eyes wide open. Machines and Technology have a tendency to fail on occasion. I have worked around technology way to long to put all my trust and my life in that situation.
And yet, I was told that ‘the revolution (would) not be televised…’
@Tim Dunn — See, unions can (and should) exist and do things, after all! C’mon, Delta’s FAs…you got this!
@George N Romey — Oh please, jetBlue isn’t going bankrupt yet, more likely than not, they’d simply merge, if push comes to shove. They aren’t Silver or Spirit, thankfully. And many airlines go through reorganization, often ending up better off afterwards anyway.
@Mike Smith – they came out to their members – and to the company
1990
Delta doesn’t have a domestic codeshare relationship with any carrier other than its regional carriers and isn’t talking about one.
AA already has one and UA is talking about one.
WN employees are hellbent they will not allow WN to go down the road that the legacies have gone down.
You are making MY point for ME.
and ferdy,
it is a given that UA, relatively weak in Florida, would use B6′ lower costs to fly to places that UA cannot profitably do so.
B6 does serve EWR so there is indeed the potential for some flights being “shifted” from UA to B6.
Without the declaration of the definitive agreement, there’s uncertainty from the rank & file of both camps. The clock is ticking, the stock holders are anxious, and rumors are running rampant (just look at this blog alone) when ever an alignment, agreement, merger, or acquisition is in play in any business.
So, keep your shirt on, have a cup of Java, consult your oracle, and place your bets.
Mr Kirby and Ms Joanna are the ones holding the cards at the moment, and they aren’t talking just yet!!
And as they should if there is even possible talk of a merger it will be stopped! It will not only cause JetBlue pilots to lose seniority overall but United pilots as well. They aren’t slow!!!
The unions need to stop seeing this as a zero-sum game. A strong partnership opens up growth channels. Growth = more flights. More flight = more pilots needs / more job security. Maybe instead of starting with “no” they could start with “how might we.”
Parker
airlines can only grow as fast as the GDP and the relative price of tickets to the GDP.
UA and B6 might grow but their growth comes from someplace else.
ALPA represents pilots at multiple airlines including DL and UA; they can see that there is no such thing as “free growth”
it is precisely because the US airlines and the domestic market have been deregulated for 50 years and unionized far longer that they understand how things really work
@American
It’s just Gary doing his typical anti-crew rhetoric again. Don’t take too much offense to it, realize he has zero flight hours and is therefore an expert on what constitutes flight safety. He’s really hateful towards pilots for some odd reason; in his articles, he tries to (poorly) disguise his pleasure in people losing their jobs to automation (when a lot of his stuff is AI generated now).
The union says the airline hasn’t consulted them on its plan (which makes it even odder to criticize the details of a plan they haven’t seen!)
Just because the union wasn’t consulted doesn’t mean that they still haven’t seen the plan at this point.
The airline says they’ll brief the union on a plan once there is one.
So JetBlue has no plan? What a great way to run a business – don’t bother with pesky planning, just see what happens. What could possibly go wrong?
At some point technology will do a better job and be safer than a co-pilot.
You need a co-pilot. See Germanwings and Malaysia flights for reasons.