Norwegian Air International offers low-cost flights for international travel and is looking to bring its business, along with hundreds of jobs to the United States. Win for consumers and win for the newly hired employees, so who could possibly be against this right? Well major US airlines along with the unions that represent their employees are lobbying the federal government to deny Norwegian Air the authorization to operate in the United States. What really is at play here is that US airlines do not want the competition that Norwegian Air would bring. From The Daily Signal:
The airline’s spokesman added: “It’s ironic that elected officials in a country where capitalism and the free market are celebrated are not making a decision based on the facts that show how we are bringing in competition, lowering prices and creating jobs. The Obama administration has been pretty outspoken about the fact that it wants more tourism coming to the U.S., and this is what we are doing.”
A comparison of flights offered by the big three airlines that dominate transatlantic services—United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines—with the services NAI launched last year shows their new competitor is cheaper.
On American, for instance, a round-trip ticket June 2 and 9 from New York-JFK International Airport to Oslo cost about $1,440. The same flight on Norwegian went for around $862. That’s a $578 difference.
Norwegian currently has 300 U.S. employees, including 150 cabin crew members in Fort Lauderdale, and 150 in New York.
“We are absolutely hiring more U.S. employees,” Sandaker-Nielsen said. “So why would Congress want to shut down something that benefits its own constituents?”
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PDFTags: Regulation, Big Government, competition