A website promoting low-cost flight tickets through 鈥渉idden city鈥� ticketing must pay American Airlines more than $9 million, a federal jury ruled Tuesday.
The jury ruled Skiplagged Inc. would pay the airline $4.7 million in actual damages for copyright infringement and another $4.7 million in 鈥渋ll-gotten鈥� revenues from the website, according to court documents and .
鈥淎merican is pleased the jury recognized that Skiplagged infringed its valuable trademarks and awarded $9.4 million in damages for copyright infringement," the airline said in an email to 四虎影院. "This was an important next step in protecting American's intellectual property and valuable brand.鈥�
四虎影院 reached out to Skiplagged for comment and will update this story with any response.
American sued the New York-based company in August 2023 and sought $94.4 million in damages, according to the Lawbook. That total was reduced by the Jury Tuesday.
The airline also sued for trademark infringement, but the jury declined to award damages on that claim.
Hidden city ticketing, or skiplagging, allows a traveler to save money by booking a flight with a layover in the intended destination. The traveler then leaves the layover airport of their destination and skips the rest of the flight or connecting flights.
Airlines like American say the website functions as unfair competition, using copyrighted material like airline branding on their website.
American also claimed many of the fares displayed on Skiplagged鈥檚 website are higher than what a traveler would pay if they booked a ticket on American鈥檚 website.
This isn鈥檛 the first time an airline has sued Skiplagged, which has been around since 2013.
Southwest Airlines filed a suit against Skiplagged鈥檚 creator, Aktarer Zaman, in 2021[PD2] .
In 2014, United Airlines and Orbitz also sued Zaman. The case was later dismissed .
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