Petition against budget airline Norwegian Air

Air France, KLM and Lufthansa as well as pilot and cabin crew unions have all signed a petition filed against budget airline Norwegian Air. Reason for this petition is the accusation that the budget airline is guilty of unfair competition. Competing  airlines are now demanding consequences from the European Commission. 

Last Tuesday (November 25. 2014), the european commission and the US Department of Transportation discussed the EU–US Open Skies Agreement following complaints on budget airline Norwegian Air.

The executives of Air France (Alexandre de Juniac), KLM (Pieter Elbers) and Lufthansa (Carsten Spohr) call on  Brussels to stop, what they find,unfair competition from Norwegian Air International. The airline offers low cost flights from Europe to the US financed through cheap labour.This was made possible after having applied for a permit that  allows Norwegian Air to fly from London to the United States with Thai personnel hired by a company in Singapore. This keeps Norwegian's personnel costs substantially lower than competing airlines with european staff.

The petition was also signed by the unions for pilots and cabin crew who claim that:"more than nine million aviation jobs in the European Union are at risk". Bjorn Kos (CEO Norwegian Air) sees no problem with the low cost long haul flights: "There is no such thing as unfair competition. We want to make flying cheaper andcreate jobs. "

Written by: Team Flight-Delayed.co.uk