Interview: Norwegian Air CEO Says DOT Approval Delay is ‘Purely Political’
Photo Credit: Bjørn Kjos, CEO of Norwegian Air Shuttle, calls the U.S. Department of Transportation's delay in granting its foreign air carrier application 'purely political," characterizing it as caving in to the unions. Skift / Samantha Shankman
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 wi
