JetBlue CEO Seeks ‘Level Playing Field’ For Smaller U.S. Airlines

Aaron Karp November 19, 2025

jetblue aircraft at EWR — Credit: Gary Hershorn/Getty

WASHINGTON—JetBlue Airways CEO Joanna Geraghty said the government should “provide a level playing field” allowing smaller airlines to compete with the four major U.S. carriers that control around 80% of the market.

With the Justice Department (DOJ) under the Biden administration forcing JetBlue to unwind its Northeast Alliance partnership with American Airlines and blocking its proposed merger with Spirit Airlines, the New York-based carrier has struggled to reach the scale needed to compete, contributing to a six-year streak of unprofitability, according to Geraghty.

“You've got four carriers [American, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines] that have 80% of the seats in the U.S. JetBlue is number six with 5%,” Geraghty said during a Nov. 18 fireside chat with ATW Editor-in-Chief Karen Walker at an International Aviation Club of Washington luncheon. “That's a big gap between JetBlue and the big guys. And we've struggled, frankly, to get scale … To be a 5% player and really trying at every step of the way to gain scale or to bring JetBlue’s brand to more places has been a unique challenge.”

Geraghty was in Washington meeting with government officials, lobbying for policies to give smaller U.S. carriers “a little bit of a leg up because we are a force for good,” she said. “We are a carrier that comes in and forces competitive change in the markets that we're in. But yet those opportunities have been deprived to JetBlue. Access to gates—that's a challenge.” She noted that rising industry costs “have a disproportionate impact on smaller carriers.”

Blue Skies

Geraghty said the Transportation Department clearing the carrier’s “Blue Sky” agreement with United Airlines earlier this year was a helpful step to allow JetBlue to be more competitive. The partnership kicked off last month with loyalty program reciprocity and will expand in 2026 to include interlining and the carriers selling tickets on each other’s websites.

“It's a big revenue initiative,” Geraghty said. “We had something similar with American, but it went deeper on schedule, coordination and revenue sharing. Since the DOJ ruled that illegal, we have a much more straightforward partnership with United.”

She said the United partnership will “address to a small degree our scale issues,” allowing JetBlue frequent flyers to “fly to places they want to travel that we don't serve that United goes to. I think for United, we're addressing some of their issues in New York and the northeast and Florida to provide more relevance to their customers who maybe don't get as much access to flights in those areas.”

United, which has a hub at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), currently does not operate at New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), JetBlue’s base. Under the partnership, United will be able to operate up to seven daily roundtrip flights out of JFK beginning as early as 2027, and the two carriers will exchange eight flight timings at EWR.

Breaking Even

Geraghty expressed confidence that JetBlue will break even from an operating margin perspective in 2026. The last year the carrier turned a net profit was 2019, and the airline is not expected to be in the black this year. “I'm optimistic about 2026,” she said. “I think it's going to be our year.”

In the aftermath of the Spirit merger failing and the scuttling of the Northeast Alliance with American, JetBlue has focused its network on areas of strength, including growing Florida flying by scaling up operations at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL), where it will end up launching 17 new routes in 2025, plus add frequencies on another 12 routes.

The airline is offering 113 peak-day departures from FLL for the upcoming winter season, making it the largest carrier at the airport. JetBlue has taken advantage of Spirit—struggling through its second Chapter 11 restructuring this year—pulling back in at FLL, its base market. JetBlue now operates to 46 destinations from FLL.

JetBlue has also buttressed its presence in the Caribbean, which accounts for about 30% of the carrier’s seats. It has additionally expanded transatlantic flying, especially in the summer season.

"At the end of the day, it's important [for the government] to provide a level playing field so that we can thrive,” Geraghty said. “If you can't do that, you've got to allow what the Obama administration allowed, which is M&A across a huge swath of the industry … We’re just asking the government folks we meet with to help level the playing field and create an environment where we can be successful.”