U.S. airline pilots are pressing the Trump administration to revoke a permit that allows the Irish subsidiary of Norwegian Air Shuttle to fly to the United States. Speaking with reporters on February 8, leaders of the Air Line Pilots Association (Alpa) said President Donald Trump’s “America first” rhetoric leads them to believe that he will side with unios in denying entry to Norwegian Air International (NAI).
Alpa, the Southwest Airlines Pilots’ Association (SWAPA) and members of Congress are among critics of the December decision by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) under the Obama administration to grant NAI a foreign air carrier permit. They contend that NAI is a “flag of convenience” carrier established in Ireland to evade international labor laws and pay pilots less, contravening an Open Skies agreement with Norway and the European unio.

Alpa hosted a teleconference in advance of a scheduled February 9 meeting of airline, airport and travel industry executives with Trump at the White House. The unio, which represents 55,000 pilots at airlines in the U.S. and Canada, was not invited to participate. Nevertheless, Alpa seeks a commitment from the administration—and is exploring various procedural means—to reverse the DOT permit approval.

On January 12, Alpa joined with the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, SWAPA and the Allied Pilots Association in petitioning the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to review the DOT’s action.