On The Flag Of Convenience Airlines In International Air Transport

Flag of convenience ships have existed for a long time in the field of maritime transport.Although on the surface,flag of convenience ships do not violate international laws and domestic laws,they have been criticized widely because of the adverse effects they have on labor rights and interests,maritime safety,maritime environment and so forth.While in the field of international air transport,the issue of flag of convenience airlines did not attract widespread attention until 2013,when Norwegian Air International Limited(hereinafter referred to as “Norwegian Air International”),a wholly owned subsidiary of Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA,registered in Ireland and applied for a foreign air carrier permit from the United States Department of Transportation under the U.S.-EU Air Transport Agreement.Some scholars hold that Norwegian Air International's move is to avoid Norway's high taxes and strict labor policies,thus it is a flag of convenience airline while others believe that the practice of Norwegian Air International is fully in line with the U.S.-EU Air Transport Agreement,and it is not a flag of convenience airline.Is Norwegian Air International a flag of convenience airline in the field of international air transport? Is the Norwegian Air International incident just a special case or there is space for its proliferation? What problems will be caused by the emergence of flag of convenience airlines in the field of international air transport andhow to solve these problems? This thesis intends to apply the constituent elements of the flag of convenience ships in the field of maritime transport to the Norwegian Air International incident to determine whether it is a flag of convenience airline.Further,this thesis deals with the possibility of proliferation of flag of convenience airlines in international air transport through analyzing the development tendency of the “open sky” policy and the substantive ownership and effective control requirement of airlines.Finally,this thesis analyzes the problems that may be caused by the flag of convenience airlines and tries to make suggestions on how to settle these problems.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,this thesis is divided into four chapters,each of which is briefly summarized as follows:In the first chapter,by clarifying the different connotations of flag of convenience airline and flag of convenience aircraft,the research goal of this thesis is defined as the former rather than the latter.Then in order to lead to the discussion on whether Norwegian Air International is a flag of convenience airline,this thesis combs the history of the Norwegian Air International incident and the international community's evaluation of the incident at first.The purpose of the second chapter is to study whether Norwegian Air International is a flag of convenience airline.On the ground of demonstrating that the flag of convenience ship in maritime transport can be used as a reference for the flag of convenience airline in international air transport,this thesis applies the five constituent elements of the flag of convenience ship to the Norwegian Air International incident,and finally draws the conclusion that Norwegian Air International is a flag of convenience airline.The third chapter of this thesis intends to explore the possibility of the spread of flag of convenience airline.After applying the five elements of the flag of convenience ship to the field of international air transport,it is found that “open sky”policy and open registries play a key role in the proliferation of flag of convenience airline.After researching,it is found that the sky will further open up and the requirements of substantive ownership and effective control will be loosened and even abolished,which shows that there is room for the flag of convenience airline toproliferate.The purpose of the fourth chapter is to conclude the problems that may be caused by the flag of convenience airline and how to deal with them.The biggest problem caused by the flag of convenience airline is that the labor rights and interests of overseas dispatched flight crew will be infringed.In order to settle this problem,some institutional designs can be carried out at the international level.As far as China is concerned,China has promulgated certain legal documents to protect the rights and interests of overseas dispatched laborers,but improvements still need to be made.In a nutshell,this thesis holds that Norwegian Air International is a flag of convenience airline and there is space for the proliferation of flag of convenience airline.This thesis proposes that the emergence of flag of convenience airline may damage the labor rights and interests of the flight crew dispatched overseas,and certain measures should be taken to deal with it.