Filing Highlights What Union Calls DOT’s Failure To Adequately Review The Application

In a joint filing submitted to the U.S. DOT, the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA) asserted that the DOT was wrong to tentatively grant Norwegian Air International’s (NAI) foreign air carrier permit application, citing the U.S. government’s failure to examine whether approving it would be consistent with the public interest and with the terms of the U.S.–EU Air Transport Agreement (ATA).

“In this tentative decision, the DOT elected not to examine whether approval of Norwegian Air International’s foreign air carrier application would be consistent with the public interest and with the terms of the U.S. Air Transport Agreement,” said Capt. Tim Canoll, ALPA’s president. “Given this lack of thorough examination, nothing the DOT has said to date would stop it from enforcing the U.S.–EU agreement and denying the NAI application once the required analysis is actually performed.”
 
The comments were filed jointly with the AFL-CIO, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the European Cockpit Association, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, the Transport Workers Union of America, the International Transport Workers’ Federation, and the European Transport Workers’ Federation.
 
In the joint filing, ALPA and the other labor parties maintain that NAI is not qualified to receive a foreign air carrier permit because it does not meet the standard of complying with all applicable provisions in U.S. agreements affecting international air transportation.
 
The parties noted that the DOT decided to apply the laws and rules that normally govern foreign airline permit applications in “an unprecedented manner that is arbitrary, capricious, and not in accordance with law.” For example, the DOT has not made a specific finding that approval of NAI’s permit application would be in the public interest. ALPA maintains that DOT’s approval of NAI’s application would not be in the public interest because the company’s business model would adversely affect wages and working conditions and U.S. airlines’ ability to compete internationally. The consumer benefits that NAI says it will bring are already made available by NAI’s parent company, Norwegian Air Shuttle.

“By tentatively approving NAI’s foreign air carrier permit application, the DOT has broken a 70-year history of determining whether an application is in the public interest before taking additional steps,” said Capt. Canoll. “The question that American workers should be asking is: why would the DOT change course after 70 years in the case of Norwegian Air International’s application?”
 
In addition, ALPA and the other labor parties maintain that the ATA’s Article 17 bis provides an independent basis for DOT to deny NAI’s permit application. Article 17 bis states that opportunities created by the ATA are not intended to undermine labor standards or the labor-related rights and principles contained in the parties’ respective laws.
 
NAI’s business plan, which was devised to allow it to avoid Norwegian labor, tax, and regulatory laws, is based on the use of flight crews employed on Asian employment contracts while flagged in Ireland, creating a flag-of-convenience scheme completely at odds with the ATA.
 
In 2010, the U.S. State Department said that the labor article was “groundbreaking” and the European Union described it as designed “not only to ensure that existing legal rights of airline employees be preserved, but that the implementation of the agreement contributes to high labour standards.”
 
“In 2010, the U.S. State Department heralded the historic labor article in the U.S.–EU Air Transport Agreement,” continued Capt. Canoll. “Yet, in its first opportunity to apply it, the DOT is claiming that the article cannot be used to deny an application, even though NAI’s business model is based on undermining labor standards.”
 
Today, Members of Congress sent a letter to President Obama calling for the administration to deny NAI’s foreign air carrier application. Thirty-two members of the Senate and 180 members of the House of Representatives raised serious objections to NAI’s business model and called for its rejection.
 
Last week, hundreds of ALPA pilots who fly for mainline, cargo, and regional airlines mobilized in front of the White House to call to deny NAI’s application. More than 16,000 airline pilots have spoken out to oppose the NAI application.

(Source: ALPA news release)

FMI: www.alpa.org