by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 9:10 AM ET, Fri August 21, 2026
In a win for Delta Air Lines and Aeromexico, a U.S. appeals court has overturned the Trump Administration’s September, 2025 order to force the two airlines to end a joint venture partnership.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the ruling on Thursday, August 21, calling the U.S. Department of Transportation’s orders to end the two airlines’ joint venture “arbitrary and capricious,” since the same department hadn’t acted in similar tones to other similar ventures, such as one between United Airlines and Japan’s ANA, according to Reuters.
The court said the Department of Transportation "did not reasonably explain why it conducted a far more limited market analysis in this case than it has always done in the past or why it imposed a requirement for approval of the joint venture that it did not require of similar joint ventures it approved in Japan."
The two airlines sued over the September order, defending the 10-year-old joint venture, which allows the airlines to work together on common pricing, capacity management and revenue sharing. The court put the order on hold pending the legal battle.
Both airlines praised the ruling, while the DOT said it would continue pursuing all legal options.
So why was there even an order to end the joint venture?
In July, 2025, Secretary Duffy announced that Mexico wasn’t upholding its part of the 2015 U.S.-Mexico Air Transport Agreement, which was created to help competition and accessibility between the two countries.
The U.S. argued that Mexico treated American air carriers unfairly when, in 2022, it moved all cargo carriers from Benito Juárez International (MEX) to Felipe Ángeles International Airport and cut slots for both American and Mexican airlines at MEX due to congestion.
Last year, the U.S. also revoked 13 routes by Mexican air carriers into the United States. It also canceled all combined passenger and cargo flights by Mexican air carriers to the United States from Mexico City’s Felipe Angeles International Airport.
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