Airline union groups in the US have launched an appeal against the Department of Transportation's decision to grant Norwegian Air International (Dublin International) a US carrier permit. The Air Line Pilots' Association, International Association of Flight Attendants, Allied Pilots Association and Southwest Airline Pilots' Association claim that Norwegian's transatlantic operations will put US jobs at risk.

Norwegian was granted a US carrier permit by the Department of Transportation (DOT) in December 2016, and has worked swiftly to restructure its European operations and to establish feeder agreements with Ryanair (FR, Dublin International). It announced in February that it would launch flights from the UK and Ireland to destinations in the US starting in mid-2017, and will establish transatlantic crew bases at Providence and Newburgh.

Objectors to Norwegian's application said that the DOT erred in its interpretation of Article 17 bis of the US-EU Agreement, and that it should have carried out a public interest evaluation. Responding to those objections, the DOT said that the case was "among the most novel and complex ever undertaken by the Department", but found that the law and its bilateral obligations prevented it from rejecting the application. Its own general counsel found that Article 17 bis "does not provide an independent basis upon which the United States may deny the carrier’s application for a permit".

Norwegian, for its part, has committed to using predominantly US-based crew on its transatlantic flights and will not deploy any crew sourced from Asia.

But labour groups have taken their objections to the federal court, and are appealing to US President Donald Trump to reverse the resolution.

Talking with Washington news site The Hill, Taylor Garland from the Association of Flight Attendants said it was a "no-brainer for Trump" to turn the decision around.

"It's what he campaigned on. He talks a lot about American workers who were left out to dry, and this is his chance to make it right for hundreds of thousands of US aviation workers," Garland is reported as saying.

Gregg Overman, from the Allied Pilots Association, was even more blunt. "The future of the US airline industry is at stake," he told The Hill.

In other news, Norwegian Air International will base two B737-800s in Oslo to operate on a wet-lease basis on behalf of parent Norwegian (Oslo Gardermoen) between June 1 and September 1. The aircraft will operate on the parent's short haul network to destinations in Scandinavia and the rest of Europe according to ch-aviation analysis of schedule data.