Norwegian Air: U.S. prolongs review of UK unit application, rejects temporary permit

OSLO, July 1 (Reuters) -

** Budget carrier Norwegian Air said the U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . Department of Transportation (DOT) requires additional time to review its UK application

** "Norwegian UK's permit application thereby remains pending, but Norwegian is confident that it will receive its permanent authority," said the airline in a statement late Thursday

** The DOT said on Thursday it had rejected Norwegian's application for a temporary permit

** "The Department does not find that grant of a temporary exemption to Norwegian UK is appropriate or in the public interest. Accordingly, the Department is dismissing Norwegian UK's request for an exemption while it continues to review the applicant's permit application," said the transportation department in its order to the Norwegian airline

** "The parties opposing the Norwegian UK application have raised a number of significant issues, in many instances directly overlapping the types of issues before us in the still pending proceeding involving the permit application of Norwegian Air International Limited," it added

** The decision would have no impact on flights to the U.S., a Norwegian Air spokeswoman told Reuters

** "It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) is only the temporary application for our UK subsidiary which has been rejected. We also have an application for a permanent permit which is the important one and which we still are waiting for," she said

** In April, the DOT said it intended to grant flying rights to Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA (LSE: 0FGH.L - news) 's Irish subsidiary, known as Norwegian Air International

(Reporting by Joachim Dagenborg, editing by Stine Jacobsen)