Airline execs to meet with Trump

Delta CEO expected to attend; unions want new administration to undo Norwegian deal.

In advance of a scheduled meeting between President Trump and airline CEOs on Thursday, pilot unions ramped up an effort to block expansion by a foreign carrier that they fear could threaten their paychecks.

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian is expected to attend the meeting with Trump, according to the chairman of the pilots union at Delta.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday that the president “is going to want to talk about economic growth and creation, how he’s enacting orders to make sure the country is safe.”

Bastian said last month he welcomed the prospect of more spending on airport infrastructure under President Trump’s administration. He also said he was “excited about the opportunity” to present Delta’s case on competition with Middle East carriers and on enforcing trade deals, and to discuss taxes and regulations.

A different issue pushed by airline unions also has gained attention in advance of Thursday’s meeting.

They want the Trump administration to “roll back the Obama administration’s misguided deal to grant Norwegian Air International an unfair advantage and outsource American jobs,” said Tim Canoll, an Atlanta-based Delta pilot and president of the international union.

At issue is an expansion by fast-growing, low-cost carrier Norwegian Air, which in December gained U.S. approval for a permit for an Irish subsidiary to operate flights to the United States.

U.S. airline unions say the Irish subsidiary allows Norwegian Air to avoid Norway’s employment laws and use flight crews hired in other countries at lower pay.

Bill Bartels, chairman of the Delta pilots union, on Wednesday said the Norwegian Air approval “will result in the loss of American jobs and a race to the bottom.”

Delta said it shares pilot union concerns “about the way Norwegian has structured its trans-Atlantic business,” according to spokesman Trebor Banstetter.

The U.S. Transportation Department has said there was no basis for rejecting the permit under the U.S.-EU agreement on air travel.

Asked about the issue, Spicer said Wednesday that “my understanding, if I’m correct, that there is a deal in which they’re having 50 percent of the crews and the pilots are American-based. They’re flying Boeing planes. There is a huge economic interest that America has in that deal right now.”

Norwegian called Spicer’s understanding “correct” and said it has 500 U.S.-based flight attendants and is recruiting American pilots.

Boeing last year told workers at its South Carolina plant that union opposition to the Norwegian Air approval could cost Boeing airplane orders and “could translate into undermining Boeing aerospace jobs.”

United Airlines pilot union chief Todd Insler called that a “false narrative,” noting Norwegian Air already flew Boeing jets before creating the international subsidiary.

The pilots union was not invited to the meeting between airline CEOs and Trump.