United Airlines pilots want tough action from President Donald Trump.
Captain Todd Insler, chairman of the United Airlines pilots' Master Executive Council, fired off a letter to Trump late last week asking him to make good on what 12,500 United pilots who belong to the Air LIne Pilots Association maintain were grossly wrongheaded moves made by the Obama administration.
Todd Insler, chairman of the United Master Executive Council of the Air Line Pilots Association, fired off a letter to President Donald Trump late last week.
Specifically, Insler requested that Trump immediately set about strictly enforcing the text of the Open Skies agreement with the European Union that was inked in 2007 during the George W. Bush presidency presumably to create a level playing field among United States-based and European airlines.
In particular, United wants to squelch growth in the United States by upstart Norwegian Air Shuttle, a fast-growing, Norway-based carrier that United pilots argue has circumvented the Open Skies agreement with low-ball labor contracts not available to U.S. carriers.
Those Norwegian Air labor contracts, as United pilots know all too well, have allowed Norwegian to substantially undercut trans-Atlantic fares available on United, as well as other U.S.-based competitors and most European carriers.
The former Obama administration apparently did not see things the way United pilots do, and allowed Norwegian to gain a foothold in the United States.
Norwegian already operates between Europe and a handful of U.S. cities, including Boston, New York City, Oakland/San Francisco and Los Angeles. Norwegian Air, which operates trans-Atlantic flights on modern Boeing Dreamliner aircraft, has not yet announced service from Chicago.
Insler believes Trump's campaign message trumpeting his desire to represent American workers and U.S.-based companies in trade policies will help the president see the Norwegian Air threat in a different light than did Obama.
Insler in his letter said of Obama's decision to greenlight Norwegian Air operations in the U.S.: "Over time this decision will destroy our U.S. airline industry and all of the jobs associated with it. I am reaching out to you to ask for attention to this issue and your support for overcoming this terrible, policy-setting decision from a lame duck president."
A spokesman for the United Airlines Master Executive Council this afternoon said no response from Trump had yet been received.
http://www.bizjournals.com/chicago/news/2017/02/06/united-airlines-pilots-pressure-president-trump.html
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