Bob Herbst of Airlinefinancials.com exclusive special to 24/7 Wall St.

Winners are: #1. American (AMR) and #2. JetBlue (JBLU)
Losers are: Delta (DAL) and US Airways (LCC) with notable mention to Continental (CAL)
 
In the last year, Delta made a big move capturing more of the NY market when they worked out the deal to take most of US Airways landing/take off slots thereby increasing their to-from passenger/cargo feed for international markets. Note that it was only 18 months ago Delta added significant European routes from their merger with Northwest.
 
Looking at some of the New York Airline realities and the American-JetBlue announcement:
 
* JetBlue is a big domestic operator in JFK and Boston but operates zero flights to Europe.
 
* American, on the other hand, has a large NY and BOS operation to/from Europe but is weak in US domestic feed.
 
No doubt the AA labor response/argument will be against this more-or-less “interline ticketing agreement”. However, I see this agreement as a positive, especially for American’s labor. Here is why:
 
Accepting JetBlue has an agreement with Lufthansa, this American/JetBlue arrangement will now provide real encouragement to more JBLU customers who would have otherwise likely chosen Delta, Continental or US Airways for their European destinations.