Henrik Hololei, head of the European Commission’s transport directorate, has criticised the United States for its delay in granting Norwegian Air International a foreign operator’s licence. The airline’s planned Cork to Boston route has been delayed for several months as US senators seek to stall its application for more than two years now.
Hololei said Norwegian’s plan to offer low-cost transatlantic flights was “precisely” the type of service that the EU-US Open Skies agreement is meant to create. He also hit back at opponents of the plan in the US who have raised safety and regulatory concerns. He noted the Irish Aviation Authority, which will oversee Norwegian, already regulates Ryanair, Europe’s biggest airline, and argued that “no one should question its integrity and professionalism”.
“If the US today thinks it can cherry pick, then who knows if one day the EU wants to do the same thing?” he asked. “Then we do not have a transatlantic agreement, just a Swiss cheese.