ALPA’s Drive to #DenyNAI Intensifies as Congress Returns to D.C.

The fireworks opposing Norwegian Air International’s (NAI) application for a U.S. foreign air carrier permit were on vivid display across Capitol Hill, even as Congress returned to Washington, D.C., after the July 4th holiday in the United States.

In Aviation Daily’s July 8 edition, ALPA’s president, Capt. Lee Moak, repeated the union’s call for the U.S. Department of Transportation to reject NAI’s application in an opinion piece titled “Norwegian Air International Can’t Fly Above the Law.” In the “Departures” department commentary, he said, “Simply put, NAI was created expressly to allow its parent company to skirt Norway’s labor, tax, and regulatory law.”

On July 7, Rep. Ted Poe (R-Tex.) characterized NAI’s proposal as a “shell corporation,” in “Don’t Skew the Marketplace Against U.S.-Based Airlines,” an opinion piece published in The Daily Caller, a web news publication.

In the halls of Congress, in a letter to Transportation Secretary Foxx sent on July 1, eight members of Georgia’s U.S. House delegation expressed concern that “NAI’s recently granted air operator certificate from Ireland will put it at a competitive advantage over U.S. airlines if the application for a U.S. foreign air carrier permit is approved, thereby threatening U.S. airline jobs at a time when our economy is still weak.”

Signed by Rep. Rob Woodall (R-Ga.), Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.), Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.), Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.), Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), and Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.), the bipartisan letter underscored the “potentially dangerous precedent that could be set for airlines around the world,” and asked Secretary Foxx to “reject” NAI’s application.

The letter from Georgia lawmakers comes on the heels of a June 25 letter from Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D-N.H.), also sent to Transportation Secretary Foxx. In the letter, Rep. Kuster voiced concern that “NAI’s operating structure will do serious damage to the U.S. airline industry’s transatlantic business.”

ALPA commends these lawmakers, along with the more than 140 other members of Congress who have urged caution or called for the outright rejection of the NAI application and taken a strong stand for fair competition and safeguarding U.S. jobs.