Norwegian (Oslo Gardermoen) has suffered a severe setback to its transatlantic plans after the US House of Representatives this week voted in favor of the Westmoreland-DeFazio amendment which prohibits the U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT) from awarding a foreign air carrier permit application to any carrier that contravenes United States law or Article 17 bis of the US–EU–Iceland–Norway Air Transport Agreement.

A Norwegian Air International (Dublin International) application to the DoT has drawn strong criticism from US Carriers, trade unions and politicians which argued that the carrier's use of an Irish Air Operator's Certificate was tantamount to using a flag-of-convenience. Doing so, they claimed, would allow NAI to skirt Norwegian labour, tax and regulatory laws and thus source most of its crews from Thailand using a Singaporean recruitment firm. The US parties concerned argue that NAI's decision to outsource labour contravenes the US-EU agreement on the grounds that it would "undermine labour standards."

In an interview with the New York Times, Siim Kallas, a Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of transport, said Europe could consider the possibility of legal action should the DoT decide not to issue NAI a US air services permit.

“I think any decision not to allow Norwegian Air to fly would be entirely against the spirit of the open skies agreement,” he said. “The Norwegian subsidiary is a European company, so its application can only be treated based on the E.U.-U.S. agreement. I would hope that in the end, openness will win and that we won’t have to get the lawyers involved.”

As expected, US parties greeted the move with much fervour with the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) president, Capt. Lee Moak, stating: “By passing this amendment that blocks the Norwegian Air International scheme and any similar bid to contravene the U.S.-EU Air Transport Agreement, the U.S. House has taken a strong stand for fair competition for U.S. airlines.”

According to the US media, the DoT has yet to comment on the amendment and has not, as of this posting, offered a time frame in which a decision will be made.

Earlier this week, Norwegian Long Haul (Oslo Gardermoen) outlined its proposed long-haul plans for Madrid Barajas which include the launch of new services to Africa and Asia as well as Los Angeles International, New York JFK, and San Francisco in the United States, in 2016 when NAI's fleet of B787s is expected to be fully in place.