On Monday 5 February, the European Commission announced that it was pleased with developments at Amsterdam airport, which guarantee that newcomer JetBlue Airways Corporation will continue to operate at the airport for the summer 2024 International Air Transport Association (IATA) season.
Between 2010 and 2015, the Commission carried out an investigation into three joint undertakings linked to transatlantic passenger transport services: Oneworld Atlantic Joint Business (which included American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair and Iberia), Star A++ (which included Air Canada, United Airlines and Lufthansa) and the transatlantic joint undertaking between the Air France-KLM group, Alitalia and Delta.
The Commission concluded that the arrival of a new operator or the increase in capacity of an existing competitor was necessary to correct the distortions caused by the joint undertakings’ activities (see EUROPE 11313/4).
JetBlue’s arrival during the previous summer IATA season in 2023 rekindled competition in this market. However, during the initial stages of the slot allocation procedure for the summer 2024 IATA season, JetBlue was unable to obtain all the slots it wanted and risked having to suspend operations on certain routes, including Amsterdam-New York, from 30 March 2024.
The Commission welcomes the fact that JetBlue was able to increase its slot portfolio at Amsterdam airport during the later phases of the slot allocation process. (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)