Will American Airlines Furlough Employees Once The Bailout Money Runs Out?

by Gary Leff

Mar 31 2020

The $58 billion airline smash and grab bailout comes with several restrictions, including maintaining service to cities that already have flights and no employee furloughs through September 30.

In an employee ‘crew news’ session on Friday, airline President Robert Isom told flight attendants that once government restrictions on furloughs lift after September there are a number of things that will help to shrink employee numbers before getting to furloughs. Pilots, though, he was willing to tell that furloughs aren’t in the card.

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American Airlines Now Offering Employees Leave At 25% Pay And Full Benefits Or Early Retirement

by Gary Leff

Mar 30 2020

Two weeks ago American was asking flight attendants to take leave with no pay. Unsurprisingly they didn’t have enough takers. Pilots, however, could take leave or early retirement at about two-thirds pay.

American is now offering paid early retirement and paid leave across the company, not just for pilots, though of course the leave options aren’t as generous as what pilots receive.

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Delta Sky Magazine Lays Off Its Entire Staff

by Gary Leff

Delta’s current inflight magazine Delta Sky launched in 2009. The magazine was outsourced, published by MSP Communications. It used Delta’s brand, was distributed on Delta aircraft, and Delta’s media team promotes it on the Delta.com website. It’s always been presented as Delta’s.

However writers were not Delta employees. Now they’ve lost their jobs.

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No, A Government Airline Bailout Wasn’t Necessary, And Just Makes Things Worse

by Gary Leff

hand holding hundreds of dollars in cash
Mar 30 2020

The U.S. airlines have long survived on government cash and government protection from competition (whether through foreign ownership, or long term gate leases at government airports). We continue to feed that, and then complain when effectively nationalized airlines don’t deliver the product consumers want. We have only ourselves to blame.

A bankruptcy-first approach would have meant equity and creditors take a haircut before taxpayers. It’s not at all clear a bailout would have been needed even then.

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Don’t Expect The Travel Experience To Be The Same When Flying Returns

by Gary Leff

Mar 30 2020

The service we’re used to from airlines doesn’t come close to what was offered in many ways in the late 1990s, but it’s a lot better than we experienced from 2001 through 2010. The ups and downs of the airline industry have determined the level of investment in its product, and we’re about to see what down times mean for product again – even once we’re able to fly in a way that’s closer to ‘normal’.

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