FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Captain Dennis Tajer, 847-902-8481; Gregg Overman, 817-302-2250/817-312-3901
ALLIED PILOTS ASSOCIATION: PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS WORK TO DO ON NORWEGIAN AIR INTERNATIONAL
FORT WORTH, Texas (Jan. 11, 2017) — Although President Barack Obama has delivered his farewell address, he still has work to do. In the final week of his tenure, the president needs to protect thousands of Americans’ careers by reversing his administration’s decision to approve a foreign air carrier permit for Norwegian Air International.
Norwegian Air Shuttle, which already flies to the U.S., established Norwegian Air International as an Irish carrier so it can avoid Norway’s labor laws and begin shopping for the cheapest pilot labor in Singapore and Thailand. Clearly, this is a blatant flag-of-convenience scheme. If the Department of Transportation’s Dec. 2 decision is allowed to stand, it’s only a matter of time before we see major U.S. carriers create subsidiaries such as American Airlines International or Delta Air Lines International as they join Norwegian’s race to the bottom.
“Not only will the DOT’s horrific decision destroy thousands of good, middle-class American jobs and decimate our nation’s airline industry, it also runs counter to efforts by hundreds of thousands of U.S. aviation workers to ensure that our industry provides the highest level of safety and security standards for our passengers across the globe,” said Captain Dan Carey, president of the Allied Pilots Association.
If President Obama fails to act by the time he leaves office next week, President-elect Donald Trump could still reverse the decision by Jan. 27, as more than 100 members of Congress have urged him to do. But it should not have to come to that. President Obama could still do the right thing. As Edward Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department, wrote in a column published this week by The Hill, “The president’s decision on whether to intervene in the NAI case will define his aviation legacy.”
Founded in 1963, the Allied Pilots Association — the largest independent pilots union in the United States — is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. APA represents the 15,000 pilots of American Airlines, including several hundred pilots on full-time military leave of absence serving in the armed forces. The union’s website is www.AlliedPilots.org. American Airlines is the world’s largest passenger airline.