Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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163. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he has made any representations to the Department of Transportation in the United States of America on the application by Norwegian Air International to commence a transatlantic service from Cork Airport; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2608/16]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Norwegian Air International, NAI, part of the Norwegian Air Group, was licenced as an Irish airline in February 2014. The airline planned to operate transatlantic services from a number of different European countries and in line with the EU-US Open Skies Agreement it applied to the US Department of Transportation for the necessary permission. However, the airline has been unable to operate such services because to date the US Department of Transportation has not made a decision on the airline's application. The Irish Government's position has been clear from the outset. NAI is an EU airline licenced by the Irish aviation authorities in full compliance with EU law. As such it should be allowed to avail of the rights available to EU airlines under the EU-US Open Skies Agreement. I and my predecessor Minister Varadkar both wrote to the US Secretary for Transportation clearly outlining  Ireland's position. The Government continues to actively put forward its position to the US administration at appropriate opportunities.

The European Commission's position is that the delay by the US authorities in granting NAI its permit is a breach of the EU-US Open Skies Agreement. I discussed the matter with the EU Transport Commissioner in December and my latest understanding is that the European Commission is considering the measures necessary to initiate arbitration under the Agreement in order to resolve the dispute.

​I was delighted to welcome NAI's announcement last September that it planned to launch transatlantic services from Cork in 2016. It will be very disappointing if such services are delayed because of this delay on the US side, particularly since the Open Skies Agreement was in part designed to encourage new routes from airports such as Cork that have not previously had transatlantic services.