Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on the recent very positive developments regarding Irish airline NAI and I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I welcomed the decision last Friday by the US Department of Transportation to grant a foreign air carrier permit to NAI. Under the terms of the EU-US Open Skies agreement, this permit will allow the airline to fly from any airport in the 28 EU member states, as well as Norway and Iceland, to any airport in the United States. Although the airline had hoped to start transatlantic services from Cork Airport last summer, it was not possible without the permit from the US authorities. The airline has confirmed this week that the detailed planning is under way, with the first flights planned to take off next summer. Its immediate focus is on finalising plans for transatlantic flights from Cork and Shannon. However, work is also under way to consider further opportunities for expansion of services. It has said it will focus on making transatlantic travel affordable for all, with low-cost fares and a high-quality service.

NAI is an Irish airline within the Norwegian Group. The group also has airlines licensed in Norway and the UK. It is not unusual for an airline group to be made of up of individual airlines licensed in different countries. For example, Aer Lingus is also now part of the International Airlines Group, lAG, which comprises a number of airlines based in different European countries. NAI was licensed as an Irish airline in February 2014. Despite the delay in getting its US permit, it has been able to grow its European operations rapidly within the EU single aviation market. The airline is headquartered at Dublin Airport from where a sizeable team of aviation professionals operate nearly 50 aircraft, all on the Irish aircraft register. The airline operates flights throughout Europe. Now with a permit to fly to the US, NAI will be able to add transatlantic operations and to continue to grow its business from Ireland.

The Government has been very supportive of the airline from the outset and has shared in Norwegian Air’s frustration at the delay in making a decision on its application for a US permit. The airline has said the primary motivation for establishing an Irish airline was to have an EU based airline within the group, given that Norway is not an EU member state. The controversy created in the US facilitated a rather uninformed and misleading debate. A range of allegations were made against the airline’s business model. This does not undermine the Deputy's case, which was genuinely and sincerely made. There was also commentary on Ireland’s ability to provide effective safety oversight of NAI. The Government has always made its position on this clear, and it has been supported. Ireland has made it clear that there was no basis for the irresponsible, unfounded and damaging public statements that have been made about the standard of social and employment protection in Ireland and about the capability of the Irish regulatory authorities to effectively oversee the safety of NAI’s operations. The European Commission has also been resolute in its support for NAI and I have already thanked the European Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc, for this. When first put in place in 2007, the Open Skies agreement with the US was designed to encourage competition in the transatlantic air market. New services from smaller airports such as Cork, which have never had transatlantic services, are precisely the type of innovation the agreement was designed to facilitate. Passenger numbers at Cork Airport have been slower to recover than those at Dublin and Shannon. I am happy to report that after seven straight years of declining passenger numbers, the past year has seen a return to growth at the airport.

The announcement this week by the CEO of NAI that it intends to launch its Cork to Boston route in summer 2017 will provide a further boost to the airport and help increase connectivity in the region. This announcement came on the back of another by the Icelandic low-cost operator WOW air, a new airline to the region, which is to commence a new service from Cork to Reykjavik and onward to the US east coast and Canada next year. The announcement of these new services is an example of the confidence the business community has in Cork and the south of Ireland. In addition, the provision of air access from North America to one of the starting points of the Wild Atlantic Way and Ireland’s Ancient East will be a significant boost to transatlantic tourism.

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