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JetBlue Airways is seeking an arrangement with British Airways that could disrupt a relationship the U.K. carrier already has with American Airlines. Air travel news website PaxEx.Aero reports that JetBlue wants to start a code-sharing agreement with British Airways.
In a code-sharing arrangement, one airline sells tickets for flights on another airline and gets some money for its troubles. Such a collaboration also creates an affinity for each partner airline with the other’s customers and gives them access to new routes. JetBlue customers would be able to book flights to places like Budapest, Hungary, and Lisbon, Portugal that JetBlue doesn’t already fly to.
“With the new codeshare, customers will be able to seamlessly book a single ticket for travel on both airlines, providing an expanded network of destinations across Europe and the U.S.,” JetBlue said in a statement to PaxEx.Aero.
Another air travel site, View from the Wing, suggests that the arrangement could get in the way of a longer-standing joint venture between British Airways and American Airlines. Ironically, JetBlue and American used to have an alliance that had them sharing control of routes in the northeastern United States, but that ended because of anti-trust concerns that came up during JetBlue’s failed merger with Spirit Airlines.