WASHINGTON – A federal appeals panel upheld Friday the Transportation Department’s approval for Norwegian Air International to serve the U.S.

Four unions representing 135,000 aviation workers had challenged the decision by arguing that Norwegian was avoiding labor laws through its unusual corporate structure.

But a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that neither federal law nor international agreement allowed the department to reject an airline application, if the carrier satisfied the requirements. The department decided it did, in December 2016 after three years of internal debate.

The concern among U.S. airline unions was that Norwegian, a low-cost carrier, represented unfair competition because it could hire crews for lower wages. But the airline insisted the criticism was unfair because it was buying Boeing jets and hiring U.S. workers.

The unions challenging Norwegian’s permit were the Air Line Pilots Association, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the Allied Pilots Association and the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association.


https://www.usatoday.com/story/trave...nts/603613002/

Yupppppppppppppp. We are following the Maritime industry off of a cliff.

This nice wave the industry has been riding the past couple years? At some point, the trend has to reverse.

I’m literally 99% positive they just had some BS in the news about reducing service in PVD and SWF. Something about not making much money and/or demand. Hmm...

They have been operating over a year now. What’s changed?

Yep.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.ft.com/content/c2e417b0-1249-11e8-8cb6-b9ccc4c4dbbb

Their load factors have been fine; mid-80s. But they're losing money and getting close to hitting bond covenants.

Their outcome is likely binary: liquidate or be acquired by IAG (British Airways' parent company)

I’m cool with either.....

And good luck to any MFs who worked for them ever getting a job here. They were warned.

Quiz time:
Who is the current Secretary of Transportation? Who is her husband? Who is her father?

Connect those dots and NONE of this is a mystery.

I actually don't know who any of those people are, but are you insinuating that they have some power over the DC court of appeals?


All this does is codify the fact that the "open skies" treaties were agreed to by the past administrations with gaping holes in them (either by design or negligence) which will allow a subversion of labor laws of both the US and/or EU and maybe even some of the safety standards.

Seriously? You have no idea who the Sec of Transportation is? Or her husband? Or her father? Just do a wikipedia search. It's not hard

Chao is married to U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Chao


There... Mystery solved.