Norwegian Long Haul (Oslo Gardermoen) has hit back at a coalition of American interests that collectively objected to its application to the US Department of Transportation for an exemption and a foreign air carrier permit under the EU-US Open Skies treaty. In a statement issued to foreigner.no last week, Norwegian labelled claims by the Air Line Pilots’ Association (ALPA), the Transportation Trades Department AFL-CIO (TTD) union, as well as United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare), American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth), US Airways (Phoenix Sky Harbor) and Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson), that its plans to acquire an Irish Air Operators Certificate for the sole purpose of circumventing strict Norwegian labour laws, as false and misleading. The Americans had claimed that by using a Flag of Convenience to dramatically lower labour costs, Norwegian would be undercutting U.S. carriers and their employees that serve those same markets, by as much as 50 percent. Norwegian refuted these claims stating that “ALPA and several U.S. competitors’ recent allegations made about Norwegian are false and misleading. Norwegian offers low fares, industry-leading service, and point-to-point routes between the US and Europe. This has not been well received by competitors who have dominated the market with expensive fares for decades.” ALPA had also claimed that Norwegian's flight crews will work under individual employment contracts that are governed by Singapore law and that have wages and working conditions substantially inferior to those of Norwegian's Norway-based pilots." Norwegian refuted this noting that it "always follows the rules and regulations in all markets they operate in while simultaneously "offering competitive wages and conditions to all crew, regardless of crew base.” Summing up its defence, Norwegian said: "The trans-Atlantic market has always been dominated by strong airline alliances that advocate expensive fares. Norwegian adapts to the market opportunities offered by the Open Skies Agreement.”