United Airlines is not interested in acquiring JetBlue, CEO Scott Kirby said Thursday.
“I’m reluctant to do a merger,” Kirby said at the WSJ Future of Everything event. “There’s other ways to do it.”
He pointed to his experience with past mergers, and said that they are difficult, particularly integrating technology and cultures. Kirby was at America West Airlines when it merged with US Airways in 2005 and also oversaw the merger between US Airways and American Airlines.
Kirby’s comments come after United and JetBlue announced earlier on Thursday that they would launch a partnership to link their loyalty programs. It was widely speculated that JetBlue would partner with United as executives at the New York-based carrier were eager to form a new domestic partnership after the Biden administration sued to end its alliance with American.
United Returns to JFK
There was also some speculation that the partnership could be a precursor to a United-JetBlue merger. Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera published a report in April that said United was considering a “three-phase plan” for its partnership with JetBlue. That plan entailed a basic commercial partnership, which would receive less scrutiny from regulators, then a strategic partnership, and finally, an acquisition.
“What we’re looking for is to have a bigger presence for our frequent flyers on both sides of the Hudson,” Kirby said. “It’d be bigger in places like Boston.”
The new partnership also gives United access to slots at JFK for up to seven daily flights. United first pulled out of JFK in 2015 and then again 2022 due to concerns that it wasn’t competitive at the airport.
Kirby has long eyed a United return to JFK. After United left JFK in 2015, he called it the “wrong decision.”
JetBlue also has a major presence in Boston and south Florida, both markets where United is not a dominant player.
“You can get a lot of the benefits without the mergers, that’s what we’ve done here,” Kirby said at the event.
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