May 1, 2014

Secretary Anthony Foxx

Office of the Secretary

U.S. Department of Transportation

1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE

Washington, D.C. 20590

Dear Secretary Foxx,

I am writing in response to multiple communications placed in the U.S. Department of Transportation 

(DOT) docket number OST-2013-0204. It is my belief that as a citizen of the United States deciding to 

respond in this public matter, my letter to you should be read and considered suitable for public viewing 

in the docket.

Recently, ALPA has sent a letter expressing their concern over Norwegian Air International’s “suspended 

talks” regarding future Dreamliner orders with Boeing. ALPA states that Norwegian Air International is 

trying to con the D.O.T. into approving the permit by halting talks with Boeing. First and foremost, it 

does not take a rocket scientist to understand that when the application has been in a “pending” status 

for more than 4 months, it is expected for a company to, at one point start to question its future. In this 

case, it would only be expected of Norwegian Air International to halt all talks of future aircraft orders 

because if they committed to 20 more aircraft, what will Norwegian do with those aircrafts if the permit 

is denied? Park them and open a Dreamliner museum?

ALPA has also stated that Norwegian has threatened to cause harm to a U.S. Manufacturer. The only 

persons who can cause harm to a U.S. Manufacturer (Boeing) are those against the approval of the 

permit. 

This week, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), has written a letter as well urging 

the DOT to deny Norwegians application. They state that they are looking forward to the successful 

merger with US Airways and already the future of the “NEW” American is in jeopardy because of 

Norwegians plan to expand its long haul operation. It is very hard for me to believe how an airline with 4 

Dreamliners on hand, and 16 more on order (which won’t arrive for another 3-7 years) places the future 

of American Airlines at risk. 

In this letter, APFA has also stated that American struggles to compete with foreign carriers who are 

propped up by their home government and Norwegian does not fairly compensate there Cabin Crews. 

To make things a bit clearer, APFA must understand that Norwegian is not propped by their own 

government, and even if they were that should not be put into question when deciding to process the 

application. If APFA thinks that they have an unfair advantage because of foreign carriers receiving 

assistance from their own government, then APFA should take that up with the government of the 

United States and request that our government start propping up our airlines.

Both ALPA and APFA state that Norwegian is not fairly compensating Cabin Crew. Unfortunately, this is 

false and both ALPA and APFA are misleading. Norwegian’s compensation for their new hire Cabin Crew 
is actually above the new hire compensation at both American and US Airways. What ALPA is doing to 

make their claim look valid is that they are comparing the compensation of a Norwegian new hire Cabin 

Crew to a 15 year Senior Cabin Crew at a US Airline. In this case, it is obvious that Norwegians 

compensation will be much less. If I were to compare the compensation of a new hire at Norwegian 

with a new hire at American, Norwegians compensation is actually $3.61 more per flight hour, to be 

exact. So if I may ask, where is this under cutting that both ALPA and APFA speak of?

Mr. Secretary, I urge you to consider and approve Norwegians application for a permit. These past few 

months the media has been flooded with false allegations and misleading information that has come 

solely from ALPA. At this point, it is my belief that ALPA no longer knows what they are fighting for and 

organizations like APFA are simply being fed all this false information as they obviously have not brought 

on any “new” concerns to the table. They simply keep going back to the undercutting, safety and flag of 

convenience argument which in my eyes holds no merit nor should it be a factor in the decision of 

Norwegians application.

If Norwegian Air International has fulfilled all the requirements to be granted a permit, then the permit 

should be granted without any further delay. At this point, this delay is not only affecting the US based 

Cabin Crews of Norwegian, it is also affecting the flying public. 

Thank you for time and service.

Sincerely,

E.L.M.