Washington, DC – Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, hailed the House’s inclusion of the Westmoreland-DeFazio Amendment in the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act (H.R. 4745).
“Today House lawmakers endorsed fair competition and a level playing field for the global airline industry. The vote in favor of the Westmoreland-DeFazio amendment overwhelmingly rejects the type of operating scheme proposed by Norwegian Air International, whose application to expand transatlantic service into the U.S. sits before the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“We’ve said all along that a so-called Norwegian airline that games U.S.-European Union trade rules by basing a subsidiary in Ireland and hiring most of its crews in Thailand through a Singapore-based recruitment firm should not enjoy the same transatlantic market access as U.S. and European air carriers that play by the rules. Fortunately, the House of Representatives today sent a powerful signal to U.S. aviation regulators that applications such as NAI’s should be rejected in favor of fair competition and middle class airline jobs.
“Today’s vote is a rejection of companies more intent on cutting the bottom out from responsible companies than playing by the rules and winning fairly.”
CONTACT: Alison Omens, aomens@outreachstrategies.com, 202-507-4843