Norwegian Air Shuttle (Norwegian Long Haul) (Norwegian.com) (Oslo) has entered into a lease agreement for two new Boeing 787 Dreamliners for delivery in the first quarter of 2016. The aircraft are the new model 787-9 Dreamliner, which is slightly larger than the 787-8s Norwegian currently uses on its long-haul routes.

Norwegian continues to build up its long-haul fleet for further international growth and has signed an agreement with MG Aviation Ltd. to lease two long-haul Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. Norwegian plans to put the aircraft into service during the first quarter of 2016. Norwegian has three Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners currently in the fleet and five more on order. Through this, the company in the future will have a fleet of 10 long-haul aircraft, including four delivered in 2014, one in 2015 and two in 2016.

Despite the early problems, “the Dreamliner is a wonderful aircraft, with high passenger comfort, long range and low fuel consumption”, says CEO Bjorn Kjos.

This larger Dreamliner model accommodates more passengers and is more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly than the 787-8 model. Boeing has already made a series of test flights and this type is scheduled to enter commercial operation in 2014.

The company MG Aviation, based in New York and is a leasing company owned by Jordache Enterprises.

In addition, Norwegian will fly one flight per week between New York (JFK) to Bergen (BGO). The first flight from BGO will start on May 3, 2014. The first flight from JFK departs on May 9, 2014 and the route will be operated until September 27, 2014.

Finally, ALPA has issued this statement opposing Norwegian attempt to establish a subsidiary called Norwegian Air International in Ireland:

The Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA) yesterday called for the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to immediately reject Norwegian Air International’s (NAI) foreign air carrier permit application because the company appears to be attempting to evade its national laws and regulations to compete unfairly against U.S. airlines and their employees. The call came in an answer that ALPA filed in response to NAI’s application.

“Norwegian Air International was clearly designed to attempt to dodge laws and regulations, starting a race to the bottom on labor and working conditions,” said Capt. Lee Moak, ALPA’s president. “If successful, the company would gain a serious and unfair economic advantage over U.S. airlines in the competition for the business of international passengers flying to and from the United States. This exploitation of the laws intended to prevent labor law shopping cannot be allowed to stand.”

While Norwegian citizens control NAI, which is a subsidiary of Norwegian Air Shuttle (NAS), the company uses aircraft registered in Ireland and has applied for an air operator certificate from that country. It appears that its 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 NAS’s Norway-based pilots.

“If NAS is permitted to pick and choose the countries in which it establishes its subsidiaries and employs its flight crews, U.S. carriers will be put at a severe competitive disadvantage because the United States has one set of laws and regulations for all of its airlines,” said Capt. Moak. “The U.S.-EU air services agreement was never intended to allow this type of scheme, which games the system for competitive economic advantages.”

ALPA maintains that the NAI scheme raises the specter of the “flag of convenience” business practice that undermined the U.S. maritime industry by allowing a vessel to be registered in a country different from its ownership and apply the country of registry’s laws to its operations. The practice precipitated the decline of the industry and the loss of tens of thousands of U.S. maritime jobs as companies flew the flag of countries with the weakest labor and tax laws and regulations.

Moak noted a quote by the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department in an opinion piece published today by Aviation Daily: “We must reject business models premised on scouring the globe for cheap labor no matter the consequences, and not pretend this is somehow acceptable competitive behavior.”

“The NAI scheme must be immediately and unequivocally rejected,” said Moak. “The DOT must not permit U.S. airlines and their employees to face an unfair competitive disadvantage from this runaway shop and swiftly dismiss NAI’s air carrier permit application.”

Moak also called on the Irish government to reject NAI’s attempt to register the aircraft in Ireland. “Ireland should not allow itself to be complicit in NAI’s avoidance scheme,” he concluded.

Copyright Photo: The Norwegian Long Haul Boeeing 787-8s are registered in Ireland. 787-8 EI-LNA (msn 35304) is pictured at Paine Field before the hand over.

Norwegian: