A couple of readers have asked me for a simple summary of the reasons it’s a bad idea for the federal government to offer another round of payroll support funding. This will duplicate much of what I’ve already written, but in a manner that might be more easily shared with legislators and opinion leaders.
The federal government picked up the tab for a majority of airline payrolls during the pandemic, but that money runs out September 30. The argument initially was this would be a bridge to recovery, and it was important to keep workers attached to their airlines so they would be ready to support economic recovery once Covid-19 was over. Now we know, though, that the pandemic will have longer-lasting effects, airlines won’t need all of their employees again for several years, and they’ve already started to shrink their payrolls.
