BEFORE THE
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
WASHINGTON, DC
Application of
Docket No. OST-2015-0261
NORWEGIAN AIR UK LIMITED
for an exemption under 49 U.S.C. § 40109
and a foreign air carrier permit pursuant to
49 U.S.C. § 41301
JOINT ANSWER OF AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION,
TRANSPORTATION TRADES DEPARTMENT, AFL-CIO,
TRANSPORT WORKERS UNION OF AMERICA, AFL-CIO, ASSOCIATION OF
FLIGHT ATTENDANTS-CWA, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
MACHINISTS AND AEROSPACE WORKERS,
AND EUROPEAN COCKPIT ASSOCIATION
The undersigned labor organizations (“the Labor Parties”) at this juncture oppose the application of Norwegian Air UK Limited (“NAUK”) for a foreign air carrier permit. NAUK is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Norwegian Air Shuttle (“Norwegian”) that has been established, in part, to provide long-haul service from European points to points in the United States. In these respects, NAUK is similar to Norwegian Air International (“NAI”), another subsidiary of Norwegian. The Labor Parties have challenged NAI’s application for an air carrier permit on the grounds that because of NAI’s employment model for its pilots and flight attendants, approval of its application would be incompatible with the provisions of Article 17 bis of the U.S.-European Union Air Transport Agreement (“ATA”). While NAUK’s minimalist application does not disclose what the applicant’s plans are with respect to employment of the pilots and flight attendants who would staff its long-haul operations, it is possible that NAUK intends to use the same model employed by NAI. Therefore, before deciding how to act on NAUK’s application, DOT should require NAUK to provide responses to the information and document production requests attached to this Joint Answer and allow interested persons a reasonable time to comment on NAUK’s application once those responses are submitted.
DISCUSSION
The record in the NAI proceeding shows that NAI is staffing its long-haul flights with flight crew based in Thailand and employed by non-European crew supply companies on employment contracts governed by Asia law: Singapore law in the case of pilots and Thailand law in the case of flight attendants. The record in that case further shows the terms and conditions of employment for those pilots and flight attendants are substantially inferior to those that apply to pilots and flight attendants employed directly by Norwegian or its subsidiaries. The Labor Parties showed that granting NAI either an exemption or a foreign air carrier permit would be inconsistent with the public interest standards set out in the aviation statutes and the provisions of the ATA, in particular, Article 17 bis.
NAUK’s application contains no information as to the employment arrangements that will apply to the pilots and flight attendants who will staff the aircraft that NAUK intends to use to serve the U.S. NAUK may plan to hire those pilots and flight attendants directly; it may plan to contract them from a UK hiring agency; or it may plan to contract them from non-EU hiring companies that employ the pilots and flight attendants on extra‑European contracts, as it is currently done by Norwegian and NAI.
This ambiguity is highlighted by how Norwegian has staffed its UK operations at Gatwick to date. To staff its Gatwick Boeing 737 operations Norwegian has contracted for a number of pilots who are employed by OSM Aviation (“OSM”) and based in London. OSM has signed a recognition agreement covering those pilots with the British Air Line Pilots Association (“BALPA”) and has engaged in negotiations with BALPA over the employment terms that will apply to them. Some months ago BALPA was led to believe by OSM and Norwegian that the pilots who are to operate NAUK’s Boeing 787s – including NAUK’s 787 service to the US – would also be based in London, employed by OSM, and covered by the recognition agreement. To date, that has not happened, and Norwegian, NAUK and OSM have not made clear the hiring and basing plans for the 787 pilots. A similar structure exists with respect to flight attendants: OSM has a recognition agreement with labor union Unite for the London-based flight attendants who work on Norwegian’s Gatwick 737 flights, but it is not clear whether the flight attendants who are to staff NAUK’s Gatwick 787 flights will be covered by that agreement.
CONCLUSION
NAUK’s application raises serious questions about whether its business plan is consistent with the public interest and the U.S.-EU ATA. In order to clarify NAUK’s staffing plans for its services to the U.S., DOT should seek the additional information specified in the attached information request, and interested persons should be given a reasonable opportunity to respond to that information before the Department acts on NAUK’s application.
Respectfully submitted,
Edward Wytkind, President
Transportation Trades Department,
AFL-CIO
815 – 16th Street NW
Washington, DC 20006
Phone: 202-628-9262
Email: edw@ttd.org
Russell Bailey
Air Line Pilots Association
1625 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-797-4086
Email: Russell.Bailey@alpa.org
Sara Nelson, President
Association of Flight Attendants-CWA
501 3rd Street NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202-434-0574
Email: snelson@afacwa.org
Alex Garcia, Secretary-Treasurer and Air
Transport Division Director
Transport Workers Union of America
AFL-CIO
501 3rd St. NW – 9th Floor
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202.719.3870
Email: agarcia@twu.org
Sito Pantoja, General Vice President
International Association of Machinists
and Aerospace Workers
9000 Machinists Place
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772
Phone: 301-967-4596
spantoja@iamaw.org
Philip Von Schöpenthau,
Secretary General
European Cockpit Association
Rue du Commerce 20-22
B-1000 Brussels
Belgium
Phone: 32-2-705-3293
Email: pvs@eurocockpit.be
Norwegian Air UK Limited Comments (1 MB)