Bart Jansen

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – House lawmakers remain opposed to allowing Norwegian Air International to fly to the U.S., as the Transportation Department has tentatively approved, because of concerns about the low-cost airline would skirt safety and labor laws.

“There has been long-standing opposition in Congress to permitting this to go forward,” said Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers on the Transportation Committee introduced legislation Thursday to block the department’s approval, which was announced April 15.

LoBiondo sponsored the bill with Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., and Democratic Reps. Peter DeFazio of Oregon and Rick Larsen of Washington.

“There has been long-standing opposition in Congress to permitting this to go forward,” LoBiondo said.

“It’s a virtual airline set up to undercut competition by exploiting cheap labor,” DeFazio said. “Our bipartisan legislation sends a strong message to DOT — we must stop this race to the bottom, and protect the open and fair trans-Atlantic aviation market.”

Norwegian Air issued statement vigorously opposing the legislation that it called a "last ditch attempt to derail the approval" and urged the Transportation Department to finalize its approval.

"NAI's application is supported by scores of U.S. airports, communities, travelers, travel, tourism and business interests," the airline said in a statement.

House votes to block Norwegian airline proposal

The legislative opposition comes as no surprise because the House voted in June 2014 to oppose approval of Norwegian. But the Senate never acted on that bill and the open question is whether anything changed with the department’s tentative approval.

Norwegian’s parent company began as a discount carrier in Europe that expanded in recent years to the U.S. But U.S. rivals and their unions are concerned that the subsidiary is organized as an Irish airline, and they asked the department to reject the airline in December 2013.

U.S. lawmakers are rival airlines are concerned that Norwegian Air will skirt U.S. safety and labor rules while pilots based in Thailand at below-market rates.

DOT tentatively approves Norwegian Air

The department proceeded “with caution and careful consideration” because of novel and complex facets of the case. But after consulting with the Justice and State departments, transportation officials found no basis to reject Norwegian.

Norwegian Air said in its statement that it would offer affordable, safe and high-quality service between the U.S. and Europe, and open the trans-Atlantic market to more competition. With some company flights allowed temporarily, while Norwegian Air's application was reviewed, the airline said it has more U.S. based crews than any other foreign airline and plans to hire hundreds more American crew members.

"We have stated multiple times that NAI does not have any Asian-based employees," said Anders Lindstrom, an airline spokesman. "Norwegian has also confirmed to the DOT that NAI will not be using any Asian-based cabin crew on trans-Atlantic flights."

The department has asked for additional comment through May 13, before it finalizes its approval.

As part of its tentative approval, the department ruled that Norwegian is financially and operationally fit to fly, and that Irish safety oversight satisfies the requirements of the Federal Aviation Administration.