subsidies

Tag Archives for subsidies.

10 Reasons Airlines Are Lying About The Need For Subsidies In Order To Distribute Vaccines

by Gary Leff

Dec 14 2020

Right now there’s a stronger likelihood of a second round of airline subsidies from the federal government than at any time in the past several months. It appears that $17 billion more for airlines is included in the next scaled-down federal stimulus bill, and legislative leaders in the House and Senate plan to bundle it with must-pass funding measures to keep the government running and avoid a shut down. Now legislators have a Friday deadline.

Airlines have deployed the argument that the vaccine means they need subsidies because they’ll have to scale up operations to be prepared for cargo shipments, and even though they’d be paid to ship cargo somehow they are unable to prepare for that on their own. This is, to put it bluntly, a lie. Here are 10 reasons why.

Continue Reading »

Airline Lobby Group Warns Something Entirely Normal May Happen If Governments Don’t Fork Over Money

by Gary Leff

depressed businessman leaning his head below a bad stock market chart
Nov 22 2020

The head of world airline trade group IATA says so far governments have provided subsidies to carriers totaling $160 billion. But that’s not enough and they believe governments need to hand over more.

And what’s the terrible thing that will happen if they don’t? Something that is entirely and completely normal and happens all the time during normal times: some airlines may go out of business. That’s ok.

Continue Reading »

7 U.S. Airlines Threaten They’ll Be Unable To Ship Vaccines Without A Second Government Bailout

by Gary Leff

Nov 19 2020

The CEOs of the 7 largest U.S. airlines told Congress that unless they get a second bailout by the end of the year, don’t expect them to ship vaccines. It’s an idle threat. They’re telling their own workers they’re ready and eager for the vaccine shipping business.

Subsidizing flight attendant salaries makes no sense if you’re talking about readiness of cargo flights. And there are better ways that funneling huge unrelated subsidies to airlines to ensure a business is ready to deliver on a big commitment. Just follow the Operation Warp Speed model and guarantee the purchase of cargo capacity to allow the airlines to plan for it.

Continue Reading »

Why Airline Bailouts Are Getting Priority In Congress Over Unemployment, Testing, And Covid Treatment

by Gary Leff

Oct 08 2020

How is it that spending on airlines, supported by both Republicans and Democrats, is what’s under consideration and nothing else. How did we get here?

Another airline bailout isn’t just something being snuck into a $2.2 trillion piece of legislation, but is the only standalone action Congress might take at this point. That may be shocking, but it also makes a lot of sense.

Continue Reading »

American Airlines CEO: After Furloughs, Even Our Crew Miss Having Young Flight Attendants

by Gary Leff

man speaking on microphone
Oct 07 2020

It’s no surprise now to see him take to LinkedIn to tell the story of a flight attendant encounter, emphasizing why he sees more government subsidies for airlines as important. Only this time his argument is that his airline, which furloughed more employees than any other carrier by a wide margin, has gotten too old. Or at least that a flight attendant tells him that furloughing younger employees means they now miss the youth on board their planes.

Continue Reading »

The Strange Incentive The Treasury Secretary Has To Push Another Airline Bailout

by Gary Leff

Sep 30 2020

When airlines gave the government a stake in their businesses, effectively partial nationalization, they created an incentive for the government to continue bailing them out to protect and grow that very stake.

Pumping in another $25 billion makes Secretary Mnuchin’s stock warrants, obtained for bailouts, look better – like he negotiated a ‘win’ for taxpayers.

Continue Reading »

Six More U.S. AIrlines Go Back On The Government Dole, Treasury Secretary Calls For More Subsidies

by Gary Leff

depressed businessman leaning his head below a bad stock market chart
Sep 30 2020

American Airlines closed on a $5.5 billion government-subsidized loan last week. It can be increased to $7.5 billion. Six more airlines though have closed on loans under these conditions: United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue, Hawaiian Airlines, and SkyWest. Treasury didn’t immediately release the amounts borrowed by each airline, or the collateral used.

Both Democrats and Republicans are calling for $25 billion in additional subsidies, under the guise of protecting workers (although that portion costs less than 10% of the total).

Continue Reading »