https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thqbjA2DC-E

 

Norway is part of the EEA, and thus part of the single European market. Norway (along with Iceland) is also covered by the US-EU open skies agreement. So nothing in the video reveals anything sinister by Norwegian. Companies within the EU/EEA can do business anywhere within the EU/EEA, so Norwegian setting up subsidiaries in other EU/EEA countries is not shady, sinister or anything of the sort. Many businesses in Europe do the same thing and in fact is a quite common practice. There is even precedent for European legacy airlines doing the same thing, as SAS was divided into four independent companies in 2004 (SAS Sweden, SAS Denmark, SAS Braathens, and SAS International), all with separate AOCs, and all operating under the SAS brand, until being re-merged five years later.

 

The issues is not any of the above. It's the question of if Norwegian is skirting EU employment laws. If they want to be part of open skies they need to comply with EU labor rules.

 

NAI is based in Ireland and according to the Irish government and the IAA, Norwegian is not violating their employment laws.

 

The treaty states they may not forum shop but switching countries to ones with more liberal labor standards. The move to Ireland is to exploit weak labor laws, in violation of the treaty. They are not violating Irish labor law, they are violating the open skies treaty.

 

NAI is the type of operation the Trump Administration looks favorably upon. Don't look for help from the government after 1/20.

 

The move to set up an Irish subsidiary was to allow NAI to take advantage of treaties between the EU and other nations, as Norway is covered under the EU-US open skies treaty. But the argument that NAI is violating the Open Skies treaty is subjective at best as the article in reference, Article 17 bis, states:
"The opportunities created by the agreement are not intended to undermine labour standards or the labour-related rights and principles contained in the Parties' respective laws."
Contrary to popular belief, there is nothing that prevents a company from moving within the EU, for whatever reason. The provision only states that a company (NAI) cannot use the agreement to undermine the labor rights and principles of contained in EU or Irish law. The EU and Ireland both agree that NAI is in full compliance with their labour laws and that NAI is fully certified as an Irish airline.

Anyway, the EU has decided to forward this dispute to the joint committee for arbitration as allowed for under the treaty. It will be interesting to see the end result of the arbitration.

 

I disagree. This is exactly what they won't allow creeping in here. Unlike Obama.

 

What does the open skies treaty have to do with labor rates or labor standards? Open Skies means OPEN SKIES for participating countries. Ireland insists NAI is legally based there and Ireland is a participating country. That is their argument.

 

And also arguing that NAI is in full compliance with EU and Irish labour laws.