Norwegian Air US licence delayed

Norwegian Air announced that it was to commence the first transatlantic route from Cork Airport to Boston this summer. However this was dependent on the airline being granted a licence by US Department of Transportation authorities. Despite making its application nearly two years ago, there is still no sign of the granting of the licence.

The European Commission is holding talks this week in a bid to save the first transatlantic flights out of Cork. The European Commission told US authorities over a year ago that they were in breach of the EU-US Open Skies air transport agreement by not granting a foreign carrier permit to Norwegian Airline International (NAI) — the Irish subsidiary of low-cost airline, Norwegian.

Talks this week are the result of intense diplomatic efforts to break the impasse and secure the licence to launch Cork to Boston service in May as planned. If a decision isn’t reached within the next two weeks, fears are mounting that the service could be delayed or postponed indefinitely.