Aviation trade unions rally against Norwegian Air permit

By Robert Silk 

May 12, 2016

Labor unions rallied outside the White House on Thursday in an effort to persuade the Obama administration to deny a foreign air carrier permit to Ireland-based Norwegian Air International (NAI).

The rally, which attracted a crowd that appeared to number in the hundreds, came four days before the close of the period during which parties can submit formal objections to the DOT’s tentative April 15 approval of Norwegian's application.

As of May, Norwegian Air Group, the parent company of NAI, will operate 29 routes between the U.S and its territories and Europe using Norway-based Norwegian Air Shuttle. But executives have said that approval from the DOT of the Ireland-based company would allow it to more easily expand its connecting route network to South America, Asia and Africa.

While Ireland is a member of the European Union (EU), Norway is not, and therefore Norwegian Shuttle cannot as easily take advantage of international EU aviation agreements as NAI could.

However, labor unions and the legacy U.S. airlines (American, Delta and United) accuse Norwegian of attempting to take advantage of Irish labor laws that are less strict than the labor laws of Norway.

Approval of NAI, they say, would allow Norwegian to hire workers from Asia on short-term contracts at cut-rate wages.

Speaking at the rally, Capt. Keith Wilson, president of the Allied Pilots Association, called NAI “a flag-of-convenience scheme.”

“If left unchecked, the flag-of-convenience model will ultimately destroy all of the American aviation jobs,” he said.

In a recent editorial for The Hill, Norwegian CEO Bjorn Kjos said such claims are spurious. NAI currently has no Asian-based cabin crew or pilots and has committed to using only U.S- or EU-based crew on transatlantic flights, he wrote.

Shortly before Thursday’s rally in Washington, supporters of NAI held a press conference in which they accused labor unions and the major U.S. carriers of protectionism.

“Parties that are against NAI’s entry into the U.S. must remember that mature industries embrace competition,” said Greater Orlando Aviation Authority executive director Phillip Brown. He said that when Norwegian introduced its Orlando-Copenhagen service it stimulated a traffic increase of more than 100% in 12 months.

Opponents of NAI aren’t just fighting the permit through administrative channels. They’re also looking to the House of Representatives, where a bipartisan bill filed last month would stipulate that the DOT only issue a foreign carrier permit if doing so would not “undermine labor standards or labor-related rights and principles” contained in the respective laws of the U.S. and the European Union.

In its preliminary ruling, the DOT found that labor provisions within the U.S.-EU aviation agreement don't provide a basis for rejecting an otherwise qualified foreign air carrier permit application.

The agency made the finding after a 28-month review process in which it consulted with the State Department and the Department of Justice.