The Treasury Department has just reported on where money from the first part of the airline bailout – payroll support – is going. In total just over $23 billion has been designated out of $25 billion in payroll support funds to commercial airlines provided for in the CARES Act.
This doesn’t include the $4 billion set aside for cargo airlines or $3 billion for airline contractors. Limiting just to passenger airlines the U.S. government is distributing funds to 96 different airlines. Did you know there were that many in the U.S.?
The largest 4 airlines were required to take 29% of the funds offered as loans. The next two largest took 26% of the funds as loans. SkyWest down to Spirit took lower percentages as loans. In total 9 of the 96 have to repay a portion of these funds and also provide the government with warrants to purchase stock in the future at (what will hopefully be) a discount. The other 87 airlines receive the funds in the form of straight grants.
Some of the funds went to the cleverly-named Rite Bros Aviation, some to Eastern Airlines which chartered Mike Pence his campaign plane in 2016, Guardian Helicopters which doesn’t even seem like an airline and $27 million went to Clay Lacy Aviation which charters private planes. Rust’s Flight Service runs sightseeing tours out of Anchorage.
Source: Eastern Airlines
Here’s the full list:
| Airline | Payroll Support | |
| AMERICAN AIRLINES INC. | $5,814,516,440 | |
| DELTA AIR LINES INC. | $5,436,331,186 | |
| UNITED AIRLINES INC. | $4,958,498,096 | |
| SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO. | $3,259,181,720 | |
| ALASKA AIRLINES INC. | $992,189,880 | |
| JETBLUE AIRWAYS CORPORATION | $935,754,826 | |
| SKYWEST AIRLINES INC. | $438,021,524 | |
| SPIRIT AIRLINES INC. | $334,736,832 | |
| HAWAIIAN AIRLINES INC. | $292,459,908 | |
| ALLEGIANT AIR LLC | $171,912,904 | |
| MESA AIRLINES INC. | $92,467,745 | |
| SUN COUNTRY INC. | $60,558,866 | |
| AIR WISCONSIN AIRLINES LLC | $40,998,013 | |
| GOJET AIRLINES LLC | $35,456,672 | |
| CLAY LACY AVIATION INC. | $26,937,934 | |
| CHAMPLAIN ENTERPRISES LLC | $25,695,574 | |
| JET LINX AVIATION LLC | $20,033,063 | |
| HYANNIS AIR SERVICE INC. | $14,719,957 | |
| SILVER AIRWAYS LLC | $13,616,171 | |
| EASTERN AIRLINES LLC | $9,259,648 | |
| CORPORATE FLIGHT MANAGEMENT INC. | $6,993,262 | |
| CARIBBEAN SUN AIRLINES INC. | $6,127,638 | |
| BERING AIR INC. | $5,367,784 | |
| GRANT AVIATION INC. | $5,041,910 | |
| WING AVIATION CHARTER SERVICES LLC | $4,740,313 | |
| KEY LIME AIR CORPORATION | $4,584,679 | |
| PRIESTER AVIATION | $4,482,420 | |
| SUN AIR JETS LLC | $3,773,256 | |
| PEGASUS ELITE AVIATION INC. | $3,647,106 | |
| SCOTT AVIATION LLC | $3,537,798 | |
| L.J. ASSOCIATES INC. | $3,100,359 | |
| KENMORE AIR HARBOR LLC | $2,908,316 | |
| HILLSBORO AVIATION INC. | $2,850,605 | |
| ULTIMATE JETCHARTERS LLC | $2,828,548 | |
| ADVANCED AIR LLC | $2,765,649 | |
| DAVINCI JETS LLC | $2,666,486 | |
| KALININ AVIATION LLC | $2,610,482 | |
| MEDWAY AIR AMBULANCE LLC | $2,394,350 | |
| JET ACCESS AVIATION LLC | $2,371,863 | |
| SCHUMAN AVIATION COMPANY LTD MKHA-108K | $2,036,555 | |
| NORTHEASTERN AVIATION CORP | $1,867,715 | |
| PINNACLE AIR CHARTER LLC | $1,801,857 | |
| DREAMLINE AVIATION LLC | $1,795,135 | |
| AMERICAN JET INTERNATIONAL CORP | $1,438,637 | |
| TANGO AIR INC. | $1,160,129 | |
| RUST’S FLYING SERVICE INC | $1,158,660 | |
| EAST COAST JETS INC | $1,117,028 | |
| SIERRA PACIFIC AIRLINES | $931,741 | |
| PARADIGM JET MANAGEMENT INC. | $921,017 | |
| MACH ONE AIR CHARTERS INC | $910,944 | |
| WORLD CLASS JET | $803,735 | |
| GRANDE AVIATION LLC | $782,567 | |
| HOLMAN LEASING SYSTEMS INC. | $775,377 | |
| JET LOGISTICS INC. | $774,107 | |
| ALANTE AIR CHARTER LLC | $726,689 | |
| IMAGE AIR CHARTER LLC | $687,387 | |
| GUARDIAN HELICOPTERS INC. | $669,951 | |
| REDEMPTION INC. | $627,885 | |
| WINGS AIRWAYS LLC | $621,346 | |
| TEM ENTERPRISES | $583,561 | |
| SACRAMENTO EXECUTIVE HELICOPTERS INC. | $574,728 | |
| PLANESMART! AVIATION LLC | $573,646 | |
| PRO AIRWAYS LLC. | $563,716 | |
| MIRA VISTA AVIATION INC. | $537,425 | |
| ISLAND AIR INC | $495,565 | |
| MOSER AVIATION LLC | $457,305 | |
| NOVICTOR AVIATION LLC | $439,385 | |
| SAN JUAN AIRLINES (RUGBY AVIATION LLC) | $390,488 | |
| LYDDON AERO CENTER INC. | $387,562 | |
| NEXGEN AVIATION LLC | $367,861 | |
| SP AVIATION INC | $366,900 | |
| AIRGATE AVIATION INC. | $333,023 | |
| ALTIUS AVIATION LLC | $322,931 | |
| PM AIR LLC | $308,465 | |
| JETEX LLC | $308,222 | |
| CAPITAL CITY AIR CARRIER INC. | $307,848 | |
| JET SERVICES INC | $297,558 | |
| JET METHODS INC | $270,802 | |
| EAST COAST FLIGHT SERVICES INC. | $260,109 | |
| TOWER AVIATION MANAGEMENT LLC | $259,915 | |
| ABERDEEN FLYING SERVICE | $234,772 | |
| RITE BROS. AVIATION INC. | $183,054 | |
| FRESH AIR AVIATION | $172,408 | |
| MAXAIR INCORPORATED | $172,007 | |
| EGLI AIR HAUL INC. | $171,862 | |
| AMERICAN JET CHARTER INC. | $152,466 | |
| DENALI AIR INC. | $140,790 | |
| PUBLIC CHARTERS INC | $104,712 | |
| SUNNYFIELD AVIATION ASSOCIATES LLC | $101,454 | |
| CAPITAL JET INC. | $90,521 | |
| FLORIDA AEROCHARTER INC. | $82,080 | |
| MIDWEST FLYING SERVICE | $74,150 | |
| BLATTI AVIATION INC. | $74,096 | |
| PACJET INC | $55,067 | |
| VALLEY AIR SERVICE INC. | $51,384 | |
| JANNUS AIR INC. | $49,780 |
Matthew Lesko was right, “the ones who know about the programs are the ones who get the money!”
(HT: Daniel P.)
is frontier not on this list?
Wow. When the government hands out money people take it…
Where is Southern Airways Express?
It seems like many of those at the bottom would have been more sensible under the PPP program. And the Govt should have allocated more funds to that part of Cares. Oh wait though, under the airline program they get nearly six months of employee wages given to them by the Govt. Small businesses got just eight weeks. Perhaps why?
Funny post title. Yep, lots of small operators. I’ve actually flown on Kenmore and San Juan, and both were great experiences. I’m surprised SurfAir wasn’t on the list.
How many of these only have one plane?
The majority of this is a total sham. Many of these don’t even fly. I recall an article a couple of weeks ago that one got $300K+ and is, in reality, one guy “trying” to found an airline. It ranks right up there in the “pork barrel” scam with the millions doled out to colleges with massive endowment funds and incredibly bloated staff.
What about PLANESMART! ? Seems like it would be worth investigating.
The Eastern Air Lines that operated for Trump-Pense campaign is a completely different company with different ownership than the Eastern Airlines which acquired the Eastern IP and received funds under the CARES Act.
And yet, Miami Air International was not given funds that were approved. The official carrier of the Miami Heat, the Tampa Bay Lightening, New Jersey Devils, a DOD carrier for the United States Military, the United Nations, Clinton Campaign (Bill), George W. Bush Campaign, John Kerry Campaign, Barrack Obama, John McCain, Trump Campaign (media), Mike Bloomberg, Liz Warren, etc. Miami Air was also repatriating displaced tourists and embassy officials due to COVID pandemic when, due to a lack of CARES stimulus, was forced to cease operations.
I hope Clay Lacy Aviation’s “rich and famous” travelers are living large on their stimulus funds while hundreds of airline workers in south Florida are out of work – due solely to not receiving any CARES funding.