The Northeast Alliance (NEA), a partnership between airline companies JetBlue and American Airlines, was ruled against in federal court after a battle with the Department of Justice (DOJ). Like the rulings of cases that came before it, this antitrust action is void of common sense.

The NEA clearly does not establish a monopoly. JetBlue makes up just 5.5 percent of the airline market. Adding that to American's 17.5 percent gets the market nowhere close to actual monopoly conditions. But, given that the NEA only services certain regions, it would be inappropriate to simply add their total market shares together.

This partnership only involves sharing certain business operations in select geographical areas. The NEA only services four international airports: Boston Logan, John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Newark Liberty. To put this into perspective, out of these airports, JetBlue only has a significant market share in New York (24.6 percent) and Boston (30.7 percent). Adding American Airlines' market share will not significantly increase the concentration of the market in any of these regions because American Airlines' market concentration outside of New York and Boston does not exceed 10.1 percent. In fact, most of America's business is concentrated outside of regions where it has a high market share.

Regardless of whether the NEA violated the Sherman Antitrust Act or not, the partnership was for the betterment of the consumer. JetBlue and American made sure to reiterate this fact in their respective announcements regarding JetBlue's departure from the NEA.

The NEA joined the two companies in "code sharing (offering seats on each other's flights) and slot swaps (pooling their gates as well as takeoff and landing times)." Furthermore, the partnership included other benefits such as frequent-flyer program reciprocity and loyalty benefits that could be used with both companies. Essentially, this partnership offered consumers a better-quality product at a higher quantity. The gate and seat sharing certainly aided in the expansion of both companies into the northeast, providing a competitive force that did not previously exist.