President Trump met with representatives of two pilots unions Tuesday to discuss a foreign air carrier permit the Obama administration granted in its final weeks to a foreign company, Norwegian Air International.
The unions, NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots and Southwest Airlines Pilots’ Association, want the new administration to withdraw the permit, arguing it gives Norwegian Air an unfair advantage against domestic ones.
“The Trump administration’s willingness to discuss this matter is a critical step in the right direction for aviation and pilot labor,” NetJets President Pedro Leroux said. “The move is consistent with President Trump’s pro-American worker narrative, and we are heartened by his interest in this issue – one that we view as posing a definitive threat to the future of the aviation industry.”
The unions held a rally at the White House last month to urge the new administration to withdraw the permit. They, and several others in the airline industry, charge that it allows the Norwegian company to work through an Irish subsidiary, taking advantage of the Emerald Isle’s lighter tax burden and softer regulations. That violates a U.S.-European Union agreement on labor regulations, the critics charge.
Bipartisan legislation introduced in the last Congress by Rep. Pete DeFazio, D-Ore., would have prohibited the Department of Transportation from issuing the permit. It had 128 Democratic co-sponsors and 48 Republican ones, but never got a floor vote.
However, the Obama administration said in April that it had no authority to withhold the permit. “The provision in the US-EU agreement that addresses labor does not afford a basis for rejecting an applicant that is otherwise qualified to receive a permit,” it said. It granted the permit in early December.
