Originally Posted by
Denti
I don't see how they risk your jobs more than even lower paying european carriers. Like for example Air Serbia, Open Skies, LOT and so on. Remember, the open skies agreement gives every EU carrier pretty much unrestricted traffic rights into the US, however, unlike for US carriers in the EU, no intra-US traffic rights.
Of course their flag of convenience scheme is directly threatening european carriers, but those do not picket their LGW base or any other base for that matter. After all, NAI as a part of the Norwegian group is just a latecomer to the market, the T&Cs have been already destroyed by the likes of Ryanair, Wizzair und in some parts Easyjet, not to mention pure pay to fly airlines like Air Baltic (which could fly that way into the US tomorrow if they want to).
The so-called "flag of convenience" scheme, as ALPA likes to call it, is regularly used in Europe, and by airlines which have long held U.S. DOT approval. Thomas Cook, a U.K. company, owns subsidiaries, with their own separate AOCs, in Belgium, Germany and Denmark. Nobody in the U.S. is trying to picket them. Lufthansa owns subsidiaries, with their own AOCs, in Belgium (Brussels Airlines), Austria (Austrian) and Switzerland (Swiss and Edelweiss). Nobody is picketing them. Another Lufthansa subsidiary, Eurowings, is operating low cost operations across the Atlantic and paying its wide body pilots 25% less than Norwegian is paying. Where is the outrage over that? SAS used to operate as four separate AOCs, SAS Denmark, SAS Sweden, SAS Braathens (Norway) and SAS International. I do not recall seeing any "flag of convenience" accusations hurled at them before they combined in 2009.