American Airlines and JetBlue Airways today announced an agreement for commercial collaboration that will offer JetBlue customers simple connections to American’s international flights from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Boston’s Logan International Airport, where JetBlue is the largest domestic airline, and offer American’s customers convenient nonstop domestic flight options on JetBlue from those markets.

Under terms of the agreement, American intends to transfer eight slot pairs at Ronald Reagan National Airport and one slot pair at White Plains, N.Y. to JetBlue, and JetBlue intends to transfer 12 slot pairs at John F. Kennedy International Airport to American.

The agreement will provide customers with interline service in non-overlapping markets, which will offer them more choices and convenient connections. The companies are also exploring other commercial cooperation.

The partnership will focus on routes into and out of JFK and Boston that extend and complement each others’ networks. For example, it would provide seamless service for customers who wish to fly nonstop from Nantucket to JFK on JetBlue and from there to London on American. Likewise, customers can board American from Paris to JFK and connect to a nonstop flight on JetBlue to Burlington, Vt. JetBlue customers will be able to effortlessly connect on flights to 12 of American’s international destinations from JFK and Boston including Barcelona, Spain; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Tokyo, Japan.

On domestic routes where the carriers don’t currently compete, American customers can book convenient, nonstop JetBlue flights from JFK and Boston to 18 domestic markets, including Portland, Maine; Nantucket; and Burlington, Vt. 

Customers of both airlines are expected to benefit from improved connections, while each airline will see additional customers fed into their networks. None of the routes on which the airlines will cooperate overlap current flights served by the other.

The agreement will provide connections for more passengers at JFK and Boston to American’s international destinations in Europe, Asia, and South America. “This new agreement with JetBlue complements our domestic and international network.  It will provide important opportunities to grow international traffic flowing into and out of the United States for both American and JetBlue,” Gerard Arpey, Chairman and CEO of American Airlines, said. “That ultimately strengthens our operations, network, and customer feed at JFK and at Boston Logan.”

“Our successful transition to Sabre, along with our new Terminal 5 at JFK and growing presence in Boston, have positioned us to take advantage of important partnership opportunities,” said JetBlue’s CEO Dave Barger.  “This agreement with American extends our route network to new and existing customers and will enhance our relevance at both JFK and Boston.” 

Certain portions of the cooperative agreement may be subject to regulatory review.