JetBlue Airways and American Airlines are tussling over a slot pair at slot-controlled Ronald Reagan Washington National airport, which American wants to utilise to begin service to Lansing, Michigan.
Delta Air Lines is also seeking the slot pair to begin the service, previously operated by Sun Country Airlines which returned them to regulators on 1 October.
JetBlue opposes both of the airlines' requests, and wants the US Federal Aviation Administration to initiate a competitive proceeding to hand out the slots.
"At the end of the day, American's petition for an exemption represents nothing more than a backdoor effort by American to tighten its chokehold on DCA by acquiring additional slots without any competitive selection proceeding," says New York-based JetBlue in a 17 September filing opposing American's request.
American subsequently rebutted JetBlue, accusing the smaller carrier of "whining" and attempting to deny service to a small community.
The Fort Worth-based airline says JetBlue had "over three months" to apply to launch nonstop service between Lansing and Washington National after Sun Country informed authorities that it would return the slots. "JetBlue was asked by CRAA if it had any interest in operating LAN-DCA after Sun Country's departure, but did not respond to CRAA," says American. CRAA refers to Lansing's Capital Region Airport Authority.
"The FAA should ignore JetBlue's whining," says American.
In a supplemental response on 29 October, JetBlue reiterates that granting American the slots would increase the Oneworld carrier's percentage of slots at Washington National. It adds that it has also observed that American loaded new flights for sale between Washington National and Atlanta, four days after Delta challenged American for the slots.
"It supports JetBlue's position that American's DCA portfolio is sufficiently large to immediately begin Lansing service," says JetBlue. "The timing is also suspicious and suggests that American, at best, was intentionally waiting for the FAA comment period to close before loading such a large number of new DCA flights."
American, which does not serve Lansing, has said it plans to connect Lansing with Chicago O'Hare if it receives approval for the Lansing flights at Washington National.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
