The judge presiding over the Justice Department’s lawsuit to break up the American Airlines-JetBlue Northeast Alliance has scheduled closing arguments for Nov. 18.
Each side will have an hour to make a closing case. The DOJ will present first and will have an additional 15 minutes to rebut American’s closing arguments.
The DOJ contends that the Northeast Alliance, under which American and JetBlue codeshare and jointly schedule routes in Boston and New York, is anticompetitive and harmful to consumers.
American and JetBlue maintain that the alliance has enabled them to increase competition in the Northeast by expanding their route network out of Boston and New York.
The trial began Sept. 27 in a federal district court in Boston. Judge Leo Sorokin heard 16 days of testimony prior to the most recent adjournment on Oct. 27.
The District of Columbia and the states of Arizona, Massachusetts, California, Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia are co-plaintiffs alongside the Justice Department.
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