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 airc raft 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 Norwegian s 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 A PFA should take that up with the government of the United States and request that our government start propping up our airlines

. B oth ALPA and APFA state that Norwegian is not fairly compensating Cabin Crew . Unfortunately, this is false and both ALPA an d APFA are misleading . Norwegian’s compensation for their new hire Cabin Crewis 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 No rwegian new hire Cabin Crew to a 15 year S enior 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, Norwegian s 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 Norweg ians 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, t his 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.