Airline complains to Europe about rival’s preferential treatment
Norwegian has made a formal complaint to Europe saying rival carrier SAS is given ‘preferential treatment’.
The airline says it wants to compete on equal terms in the Scandinavian aviation market.
But it claims SAS benefits from a joint Air Operator Certificate (AOC) which entitles it to traffic rights within the EU and Norway, which is not part of the EU.
If Norwegian had the same traffic rights, it claims it would be able to operate, for instance, flights between Helsinki and Dubai, London and Tel Aviv and Barcelona and Tel Aviv.
Usually an airline is limited to an operating licence in one country where it has its ‘principal place of business’ and it is the civil aviation authorities in that country that are responsible for performing the safety supervision.
The authorities argue that the differential treatment is justified by historic ‘grandfather rights’ mainly due to the fact that its majority owners are the governments of Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has also criticized the special treatment and concluded that the preferential treatment is in breach of European law.
In a statement, Norwegian said it wants equal conditions of competition in the Scandinavian aviation market.
It has submitted a formal complaint regarding unlawful differential treatment in favour of SAS to the European Commission and ESA (EFTA Surveillance Authority).
It said: "Discriminatory conditions and liscencing practises prevent Norwegian from obtaining access to traffic rights on the same terms as SAS; in addition the differential treatment generates significant additional costs for SAS’ competitors in Scandinavia."
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