Category Archives: Dreamjet

SWAPA applauds the Dreamjet decision by the DOT but still opposes the Norwegian Air International application

The Southwest Airlines Pilots’ Association (SWAPA) (Dallas), the union representing the pilots of Southwest Airlines, issued this statement:

The Southwest Airlines Pilots’ Association (SWAPA) commends the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) for granting an exemption to Dreamjet, a startup airline, based in France within the European Union (EU).

“The rapid approval of Dreamjet’s application is applauded by the pilots of Southwest Airlines,” said Captain Paul Jackson, SWAPA Governmental Affairs Chairman. “We agree with the DOT that Dreamjet is fit to serve the EU-US market under the terms of the Open Skies agreement.”

This approval for Dreamjet is in contrast to the application for a foreign carrier exemption on file with the DOT by Norwegian Air International (NAI). The pilots of Southwest Airlines have opposed the application of NAI from early in the process based on their flag of convenience strategy and usurping of labor laws with the offshoring of crews.

“We continue to oppose NAI and at the same time applaud the DOT for recognizing EU carriers that comply with the rules and grant them entry to a fair and equitable market,” Jackson continued.

Dreamjet is set to launch five weekly flights between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Newark Liberty Airport on July 11 with a Boeing 757-200 configured with 74 business class seats.

Note: Dreamjet has now been renamed La Compagnie.

Dreamjet becomes La Compagnie, ready to start business class flights on July 11

Dreamjet (Paris) has become La Compagnie (The Company). The would-be airline has filed an application with the Department of Transportation (DOT) to operate all-business Boeing 757-200 flights from Paris (CDG) to Newark. The new airline is now planning to launch operations on July 11.

Frantz Yvelin is the founder and visionary, who perviously founded L’Avion (Paris).

Images: La Compagnie.

Video: Interview with Frantz Yvelin (in French):

Dreamjet proposes trans-Atlantic Paris-New York Boeing 757 business class flights (sound familiar?)

Dreamjet (Paris) has filed an application with the Department of Transportation (DOT) to operate all-business Boeing 757-200 flights from Paris to New York (the airports were not specified). Dreamjet still needs the final approvals to fly as an airline from the French government. The new paper airline is proposing to start trans-Atlantic operations as early as June if it can get the approvals to fly. However the application has now been grouped with the controversial application of Norwegian Air International of Ireland (Norwegian Air Shuttle).

Frantz Yvelin, founder of the previous all-business L’Avion (which was sold to British Airways), has been rumored as the co-founder of this new venture.

ALPA issued this statement on the application of Dreamjet and Norwegian Air International:

The Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA), filed with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to make clear the stark contrast between Dreamjet’s garden variety application for a DOT foreign air carrier permit and Norwegian Air International’s (NAI) request for authority to operate a business model that will put the livelihood of thousands of U.S. airline workers at risk.

“In contrast, Norwegian Air International’s application is based on an unacceptable business model that should be rejected.”

ALPA’s filing detailed the difference in a reply to NAI’s answer to Dreamjet’s application for a foreign air carrier permit.

“Dreamjet’s application could not be more different from Norwegian Air International’s effort to cheat the system by avoiding Norwegian labor law,” said Capt. Lee Moak, ALPA’s president.

In a reply filed jointly with the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD) and the European Cockpit Association, ALPA states that NAI’s application for a foreign air carrier permit is a “far cry from that presented to the Department by Dreamjet and by the many other unopposed applications that have been presented to the Department by European carriers following implementation of the Air Transport Agreement.”

With operations centered in Norway, NAI is attempting to operate its international long-haul flights as an Irish airline expressly to avoid Norwegian employment laws. It appears that NAI is using flight crews hired through a Singapore employment company on individual contracts with compensation well below that of its Norway-based employees.

“ALPA has a long history of championing a fair marketplace in which airlines compete on merit, schedule, customer service, and the routes they fly,” continued Moak. “We are not afraid of competition. U.S. airlines and their workers are eager for the opportunity to go head to head with any airline that competes fairly by the rules governing the global marketplace.”

This week, ALPA launched Save Our Skies (SOS), a multiplatform campaign designed to mobilize the American public to voice their collective opposition to actions that are harmful to U.S. airline industry workers’ jobs, including specifically NAI’s application for a foreign air carrier permit.

More than 30,000 people have signed the #denyNAI petition urging Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx to reject the NAI scheme and stand up for U.S. airline workers, and more than 100 members of Congress have voiced concern or outright opposition to NAI’s DOT application.

“ALPA does not oppose Dreamjet’s application, just as we have not opposed the many other European airline applications under the U.S.-EU Open Skies agreement,” said Capt. Moak. “In contrast, Norwegian Air International’s application is based on an unacceptable business model that should be rejected.”

Read the Wall Street Journal report: CLICK HERE

Copyright Photo: Arnd Wolf/AirlinersGallery.com. L’Avion launched business class flights on January 3, 2007 between Paris (Orly) and Newark using two Boeing 757-200s. However on July 2, 2008 the owners agreed to sell L’Avion in a £54 million deal with British Airways. BA merged L’Avion into its OpenSkies operation on April 4, 2009. L’Avion’s Boeing 757-230 F-HAVN (msn 25140) completes its final approach into Frankfurt in this striking livery.