Skift Take
It's unlikely the DOT will be able to stall Norwegian Air International's foreign air carrier application for much longer, and then we'll see how much fare disruption is really in the carrier's arsenal.
Bjørn Kjos, the founder and CEO of Norwegian Air Shuttle, is getting impatient for what he believes is inevitable -- the U.S. Department of Transportation's granting subsidiary Norwegian Air International a foreign air carrier license.
The parent airline, Norwegian Air Shuttle, has been flying from Oslo to the U.S. since 2013, but the low-cost subsidiary, Norwegian Air International, set up shop in Ireland and applied to the DOT in February for the foreign air carrier license which would enable it to fly to the U.S., Europe and Asia.
In September, the DOT ruled that it would need more time to make a decision, a move that Kjos declares is "purely political" and a concession to U.S. carriers and the U.S. Airline Pilots Association, which have argued that Norwegian Air International is stocked with crew from Thailand and other Asian countries who receive sub-par wages, and thus the airline resorts to anticompetitive practices.
Kjos pledges to disrupt the transatlantic market with $240 Gatwick-New York and $320 Gatwick-London fares, and argues that under the EU-U.S. framework, the DOT has no legal grounds to further mess with the application.
Kjos visited Skift's offices in New York City and we asked for an update on the airline and the DOT application.
Skift: You're here to disrupt the U.S. aviation industry?
Bjørn Kjos: Well, you are admitting that it is the most conservative the industry you will find on the globe?
Skift: Maybe.
Kjos: So we have to put some new ideas into so many minds. That's what we are here for, explaining what we are doing and why we are doing it. Our goal is to have affordable fares for everybody, not only within Europe or within the U.S., but also transatlantic.
Skift: And the current transatlantic system is sort of a monopoly in some ways, isn't it?
Kjos: The three alliances control around 85% of all the travelers across the Atlantic. There might be competition, but the fares have steadily been rising since these alliances have controlled the traffic.
Skift: Why do you think that you can change all that?
Kjos
