Call it the most optimistic aviation headline of the month: OBAMA OPENS WAY FOR CORK-US FLIGHTS. That’s the angle being taken on the current Norwegian Air licensing situation by Cork’s Evening Echo as the carrier continues to wait for action on its application to operate flights as an Irish flagged operator. The application has been pending more than two years now, mostly caught in politics as US carriers try to fend off the rapid transatlanic growth from Norwegian. The dispute is expected to go to arbitration at some point though the outcome or timing there remains hard to predict.
The headline and story were triggered by a meeting held last week between Irish officials and President Obama in which he stated that there was “no political opposition” to granting the license. Of course, in political terms that doesn’t mean that the license will be granted, but it certainly got the local media in Cork excited about the potential to have non-stop flights between their local airport and Boston, a route Norwegian has indicated it will serve should the license be granted. And given that the opposition o granting the license has been essentially driven by labor unions in the USA it is rather challenging to see how it is anything but political, regardless of what was said during the meeting in Washington, DC.
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