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American Airlines Cuts Ties With JetBlue

Due to its greater reach along the U.S. East Coast arising from its recent merger with US Airways, American Airlines Group Inc. (NASDAQ: AAL) said Monday that it has ended its inline agreements with JetBlue Airways Corp. (NASDAQ: JBLU), which covered ticketing, baggage handling and frequent-flyer programs.

Such agreements allow customers to buy connecting flights for participating carriers on one ticket, and they allow airlines to offer more destinations without having to make large investments. JetBlue has similar agreements with 30 other carriers, and CEO Dave Barger said Monday that the partnership with American Airlines was “not overly material when we think about the other partnerships that we have.”

Also, customers of American Airlines and JetBlue using their reciprocal frequent-flyer programs will no longer earn miles or points when traveling on eligible routes, as of April 1. Points already accrued through the partnership would be credited to customers’ accounts and will not be affected.

American also reported Monday that severe weather had an impact on performance in the first two months of the year. However, total revenue passenger miles for February were up 0.5% year-on-year to 15.1 billion, and total capacity was 0.8% higher to 19.2 billion available seat miles.

American Airlines shares were up fractionally to $39.10 in mid-day trading Monday. The 52-week range is $14.71 to $39.88.

JetBlue’s shares were down fractionally, to $8.95 in a 52-week range of $5.95 to $9.45.

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