The Fair and Open Skies Act was introduced in the House this week, pledging to prohibit the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) from granting foreign air carrier permits to those airlines seeking to skirt fair labor and competition standards.
HR 3632 would specifically crackdown on what they call the exploitation of flags of convenience — wherein companies appear from certain countries in name, but establish themselves elsewhere to avoid regulations and labor standards. In effect, it would guarantee compliance to the U.S.-E.U.-Norway-Iceland Air Transport Agreement, banning permits for any foreign airline unless USDOT could determine it wasn’t using these flags of convenience.
“Our bill ensures foreign airlines seeking to serve the United States play by the rules,” said Chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Peter DeFazio (D-OR). “Today, foreign airlines can set up under a flag of convenience to exploit weak labor laws in other countries in order to save money and undercut competition. And across the globe, there are attempts by foreign airlines to undermine important labor standards to get ahead. This bipartisan bill protects American jobs from predatory and unfair competition, and it protects the American flying public from deception.”
DeFazio introduced the bill alongside Chair of the Subcommittee on Aviation Rick Larsen (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on Aviation Sharice Davids (D-KS), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit Rodney Davis (R-IL) and U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-GA). It follows a similar effort from last Congress, which was in direct response to the permitting of Norwegian Air International — a company that is “Norwegian” in name only. The airline was established in Ireland and employs cheap, short-term crews based on Singapore law to avoid Norway’s strong labor protections.
“Foreign airlines need to play by the rules or they shouldn’t be permitted to operate within the United States,” Davis said. “Ignoring when they skirt regulations or labor standards in their home country only puts American workers and companies at a disadvantage. If a foreign air carrier wants to operate within the United States, then they need to play by the same rules we require of our airlines.”
The effort is being backed by several industry associations as well, including the Air Line Pilots Association, the Association of Flight Attendants, and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).