British Airways is expanding its operations in the US through a codeshare arrangement with JetBlue ahead of the peak summer season.
Codesharing partnerships with advantages
British Airways plans to expand its presence in North America beyond its present flights from London Heathrow to New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and other smaller destinations. In 2024, the airline negotiated codeshare agreements with a number of carriers worldwide in important countries where BA wanted to expand.
Most notably, the airline entered into codeshare agreements with Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo and US hybrid carrier JetBlue. British Airways’ alliance with JetBlue was especially helpful for the latter, given the US’s difficult growth into Europe in recent years.
British Airways’ codeshare partnership with JetBlue has proven particularly fruitful, as in December 2024, it was announced that BA flight numbers will now be extended to the following domestic JetBlue flights:
- Boston (BOS) to Atlanta (ATL).
- Boston to Austin (AUS).
- Boston to Cleveland (CLE).
- Boston to Denver (DEN).
- Boston to Seattle (SEA).
- New York (JFK) to Atlanta.
- New York to Sacramento (SMF).
- New York to Seattle.
Along with offering British Airways an advantage in the US market, JetBlue benefits immensely from its codeshare relationship with the British carrier.
After all, JetBlue carrying BA flight numbers allows British Airways travelers to earn Avios points while flying on the US carrier’s flights, further opening up the European market for JetBlue customers and their frequent flier program, TrueBlue.
Not an official OneWorld Alliance member.
JetBlue has partnerships and codeshare arrangements with British Airways and American Airlines, but has not yet joined the oneworld alliance. JetBlue benefits from partnerships that allow customers to book codeshare flights at major airports, including Boston, New York JFK, and Los Angeles, which are also oneworld hubs for American Airlines.
The airline has one-off agreements with non-aligned carriers like Icelandair and even Star Alliance member Singapore Airlines, thus joining Oneworld is not guaranteed.
Trouble in Europe
JetBlue has been expanding into the transatlantic long-haul market over the last few years. In the summer of 2021, the airline began historic flights from its New York JFK hub to London Heathrow Airport with its Airbus A321LR aircraft. Shortly after, the carrier expanded its service from Boston to London, then to Paris CDG and Amsterdam.
Despite promising expansion, the US airline has experienced issues with its European network, particularly in Amsterdam, where flights were temporarily suspended during the summer of 2024. The carrier’s Amsterdam flights are currently scheduled to begin in March 2025. JetBlue plans to use Airbus A321XLRs on transatlantic routes, however deliveries have been delayed (Travel Weekly, September 2018).
Simply Aviation, an aviation YouTube channel, stated that JetBlue had removed hot meals from its economy class on transatlantic flights. While this may appear to be a huge concern (especially on trips returning to the United States from Europe that can run up to seven hours), the carrier is still providing cold meals to passengers on its flights, such as wraps, salads, and sandwiches.
Despite the issues that the US carrier has encountered and overcome on its transatlantic routes, JetBlue serves as a reliable partner airline for both British Airways and American Airlines on their legacy routes between New York, Boston, and European locations such as London and Paris.
This gives oneworld members, regular flyers, and typical travelers another alternative for traveling between North America and Europe. After all, more competition (even if it’s linked) improves ticket pricing. In the end, the future of the JetBlue-BA codeshare and relationship appears to be very positive.