Norwegian Air International

The company is based in Ireland to avoid the labor laws in Norway and they will not fly to or from Ireland. The pilots will be “rented” from Singapore and based in Thailand. Also, the pilots will have individual employment contracts that do not allow collective bargaining and contain wages and working conditions that are far below the pilots who fly for NAI’s parent company. Their destinations are Thailand, Europe, New York, and Fort Lauderdale. And in 2014, NAI had plans to expand its flights to Europe and New York, San Francisco, Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, and Orlando.

The US Carriers oppose NAI, because NAI can lower their fares, because they have shopped around for lower working standards. So it gives NAI an unfair advantage over any US carrier that is competing for the International business. NAI just doesn’t pose a threat to the US carriers, but all airlines in the global market. But for the routes into the US, the US carriers would not be getting the international business, because NAI would have their fares so low that US carriers cannot compete.

The DOT denied NAI request, because NAI isn’t fair competition in the international market. I do agree with the decision, because if they are allowed to operate into the US, then it will for the most part kill the domestic carriers. If you allow this type of carrier to enter the US, then there will be 100 that will pop-up overnight following the same business model and these companies will be doing international and domestic flight in the US. Then it will be one set of rules for carriers like NAI and another for companies like Delta or American, which isn’t fair and will put Delta and American out of business. Another problem I have with the business model of NAI is: all NAI is doing is trying to skirt the laws, but a big problem for governments is if something goes wrong who is held responsible. Is Ireland responsible, because that is where NAI has their certificate of operations from? Or is it Singapore, because that is where the pilots are being “rented” from?

The ramifications of NAI if they are granted to operate in the US is: they are going to put our domestic carriers out of business, because other companies will start adopting the same business model as NAI. There will be only flights to airports that are going to make the company money and it will just be inconvenient to the people here in the US. All NAI will do is kill the US airline economy, which will only hurt our overall economy, which we do not need.

 

Links

http://www.alpa.org/Portals/Alpa/PressRoom/PressReleases/2014/2-5-14_14.11.htm

http://www.alpa.org/Portals/Alpa/deptpages/govtaffairs/issues/nai/NAISchemeInfoGr.htm