Your hard work over the last year in motivating members of Congress to take action to convince the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to Deny NAI paid off with a significant, although temporary, victory when DOT denied Norwegian Air International’s (NAI) exemption permit to operate in the United States. Now is the time to reinforce our message to ensure DOT denies NAI once and for all!
On Wednesday, November 19, ALPA will host a one-day fly-in for pilots to advocate on Capitol Hill, attend a rally event, and safeguard the viability of the American airline pilot by motivating members of Congress to take action in support of your jobs and push DOT to finally and completely Deny NAI.
While the exemption win was a major first step, still pending at DOT is the application for a foreign air carrier permit which, if approved, would allow for immediate and indefinite access to the United States under NAI’s deceptive scheme. We must keep the pressure on DOT to deny NAI’s foreign air carrier permit and stop the flag-of-convenience model that is a threat to U.S. jobs.
Norwegian’s CEO is slated to speak at a luncheon in Washington, D.C., on November 20, and the following week the European Commission has requested an “urgent meeting” with U.S. officials to discuss NAI’s pending application. The timing of this fly-in could not be more important. We must send a unified, visible message to decision makers in Washington, D.C., that we are watching, we are engaged, and it is simply unacceptable to allow NAI to bring its illegal, job-killing scheme to our shores. This is where you come in!
The November 19 Day of Action will start with a briefing and rally at 10:30 a.m. in the Senate Visitors Center followed by meetings with members of Congress and information distributing activities in the afternoon. All ALPA MECs and every ALPA pilot is encouraged to be engaged and attend this event. Overnighting is not required as the event will conclude by the late afternoon. Please contact Andrew.Rademaker@alpa.org to RSVP and for more information. Let us know we can count on you!