American Airlines, Delta Airlines and Southwest amongst others have had several meetings with the new Trump administration to protest against the approval given for Norwegian to continue to expand in the US and open bases.
They have also been lobbying the government regarding the gulf carriers continued expansion into the US which in their view is also creating unfair competition due to those airlines being funded by their respective states.
It will be interesting to see if they succeed given that there are in excess of 100 nations who have signed up to the open skies agreement which effectively allows operators freedom to fly routes they historically would not have been able to fly. This should in turn increase competition and lower fares for consumers but American Airlines are worried that Norwegian will hire cheaper labour from Asian countries to fly the routes and therefore create unfair competition.
Norwegian have announced they are due to open their second base Providence TF Green airport in Rhode Island. Their first base was opened at Stewart International Airport in New York.
