American Airlines President Robert Isom Says No Bailout Needed, Will Take The Money Anyway

Mar 19 2020

In London just in advance of travel restrictions going into effect, American Airlines President Robert Isom traveled across the Pond to speak to employees there. American employees nearly 1000 people in the U.K.

He spoke at the British Airways headquarters at Waterside, and said that while they aren’t going to spend “even a dollar” that they do not have to, they owe it to customers not to degrade the inflight experience and that the company is “prepared to weather any type of storms that come up and says there’s “enough cash on hand to weather downturns in the business.” And that was before they picked up another billion dollars just today. Still they want to ensure that if the government is handing out money, they’re well-positioned to get some.

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Crazy Times Bring Out Dumb Ideas, and Nationalizing Airlines Is The Worst

Mar 18 2020

Former White House Chief of Staff and former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel is known for saying ‘never let a crisis go to waste.’ It’s an opportunity to push an agenda. So as the airline bailout train leaves the station some people are advocating the consumer protection rules that they wanted anyway. Others (like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) want the financial reforms they want anyway.

If you hate air travel you want to use this crisis to nationalize the airlines, an idea put forward by the left wing American Prospect.

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Expect REAL ID To Be Delayed “Due To Coronavirus”

Mar 18 2020

The TSA has been saying that starting October 1, 2020 they are only going to accept IDs at security checkpoints that are compliant with a 2005 law that’s been getting kicked down the road for years. There are still a few states that aren’t issuing these IDs, and many people in states that are haven’t replaced their drivers licenses with new ones.

The prospect of turning away passengers from flying en masse never seemed plausible one month before the Presidential election. The October 1, 2020 deadline, which has been pushed off for years, inevitably will be pushed off again.

Now, with coronavirus, we know what excuse the Department of Homeland Security is likely to use.

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Don’t Ban Stock Buybacks Or Impose Consumer Protection Rules As Part Of An Airline Bailout

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Mar 18 2020

Airline bailouts are a bad idea. Stockholders should take a haircut before taxpayers. Airline bankruptcy does not present contagion risk to the economy. Airlines have flown through bankruptcy successfully – American, Delta, and United have all done it. And any help for workers should address the needs people face independent of industry.. Working for an airline isn’t ‘more special’ than some other job.

However there are very bad ideas circulating around new conditions to impose in exchange for a bailout.

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