Norwegian - US ALPA vil stoppe støtte fra Ex-Im banken

Jeg er ukjent med Norwegians finansiering av sine fly, men US ALPA har nevnt Norwegian i den sammenheng som fremkommer under.

Association to Congress: Reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank, but stop loans to foreign airlines


Boeing depends on foreign buyers of its large aircraft. Here Air New Zealand and Boeing show off the first delivered 787-9 Dreamliner at Boeing's delivery center at Paine Field in Everett, Wash., on Wednesday. 

WASHINGTON - The head of the airline pilots union has sent letters to both chambers of Congress urging members to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank of the United States, a setback for conservative Republicans who have led efforts to let the bank die this fall after 80 years.

The support, however, comes with a demand: End the bank's subsidies on sales of Boeing wide-body jets to state-owned foreign airlines.

The letters are explicit reminders that airline industry opposition to the bank, touted as key voices in the bank's opponents campaign to end it, is aimed at specific programs within the bank's portfolio and not to the bank as an institution.

The bank's charter expires Sept. 30, and conservatives have mounted the most serious effort on record to deny efforts to extend it, as President Obama has asked. From within the Congress, those efforts have been led by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Dallas, and have had the verbal backing of incoming House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California. From outside Congress, the war against the bank has been led by conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation and the Club for Growth.

The effort came into full view last month during a hearing before Hensarling's House Financial Services Committee, which he chairs. At that hearing, key representatives from the airline industry served as star witnesses against the bank.

But it was evident then that the industry's staunch opposition to the bank is focused only on the activities it sees as a threat to its business, not to the bank itself.

Today's letters make that explicit. Air Line Pilots Association, International president Captain Lee Moak writes that the bank should be reauthorized, but Congress should end its ability to support Boeing's sales of wide-body jets to state-ownded foreign airlines.

He argues that every time the bank helps foreign airlines buy a big jet from Boeing, the bank's financing assistances saves them $2 million a plane.

In fact, the interest rates on the loans made or guaranteed by the bank are usually higher than what airlines like Delta Airlines pay on the private market - but they are lower rates than what the foreign carriers would pay if the bank wasn't helping them.

On the other hand, supporters of the bank - and of Boeing - argue that the loans do exactly what the should: Make it easier for manufacturers, especially large ones, to sell more of their products overseas.