Sep 19 2020

Airlines have somehow conned the President, the Speaker of the House and myriad members of the House of Representatives and the Senate to sign onto the idea of a $25 billion ‘clean extension’ of CARES Act payroll support. That’s a second $25 billion injection of cash in exchange for not furloughing workers or eliminating service to most cities through March 31, 2021.

Except that the math here is truly insane. No one seems to be doing the math. So let’s talk about what a $2.5 billion package might look like instead.

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Sep 18 2020

You wouldn’t buy the basic economy tickets airlines were selling, but they’re going to take your money anyway.

President Trump’s Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said on Friday that not giving airlines another $25 billion, after providing $25 billion in payroll support and another $25 billion in subsidized loans, is akin to punishing them:

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Sep 17 2020

Politicians from both sides of the aisle, along with the President, have publicly supported a second airline bailout in the form of a ‘clean extension of CARES Act payroll support.’ That would mean another $25 billion over 6 months to the airlines in exchange for holding off on employee furloughs.

However this hasn’t happened because it’s caught up in negotiations over a larger package, that some observers say is now unlikely to happen. Since furlough restrictions expire after September 30, some airlines are expected to let go of workers starting October 1. That’s seen as a deadline for Congress to act (or for the President to take some form of executive action, as he’s suggested he could).

October 1 isn’t really a hard deadline, though.

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