With a wider extension of pandemic-related relief stalled in Congress, two U.S. Senators have introduced a stand-alone aid package which would buttress U.S. airlines through March 2021.
Details: Air Carrier Worker Support Extension Act
Introduced by Senators Susan Collins (R – ME) and Roger Wicker (R – MS), the s0-called Air Carrier Worker Support Extension Act would:
- Extend the airline worker Payroll Support Program (PSP) through March 31, 2021
- Provide $28.8 billion in assistance
- $25.5 billion for passenger air carriers
- $300 million for cargo air carriers
- $3 billion for airline contractors
- Of the $28.8 billion
- $11 billion in new appropriations
- $17.4 billion in funding repurposed from unspent CARES Act PSP funds and loans
- Preserve existing air service to all airports
- Executive payments would remain capped and stock buybacks prohibited through March 2022
Wicker, Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said:
“The CARES Act successfully saved thousands of jobs that support the airline industry and provided these businesses with some breathing space after the drastic drop in air travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“However, the market has not turned around as much as we had hoped, and additional relief is needed to prevent more than 60,000 aviation sector employees from losing their jobs beginning October 1. This legislation would extend the critical Payroll Support Program to provide support for passenger air carriers, cargo air carriers, and aviation contractors. It would also preserve our nationwide service by requiring airlines to maintain routes as a condition for receiving assistance.
“Maintaining a strong national air transportation system is critical for today’s economy and the continued recovery.”
Collins, Chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, added:
“The pandemic has had a devastating toll on the aviation industry, putting many American jobs at risk. The Payroll Support Program that was included in the CARES Act saved over 700,000 of these jobs. Our legislation to extend this lifeline would help frontline employees to continue to receive a paycheck and require airlines to maintain flights to every community they serve.”
You can read the full bill here.
CONCLUSION
Despite the enormous cost of this bill, it has a decent chance of passing. There appears to be bipartisan support on the Hill and in the White House for this extension and with only 10 days left until thousands of furloughs take effect, I expect a relief package will glide through before the deadline.
image: Delta (Delta has promised not to furlough any flight attendants in 2020, even without further relief form U.S. taxpayers)
Why are airport workers jobs more important than everyone else’s? If guaranteeing employment when the free market doesn’t warrant it is such a great idea, then why not offer guaranteed employment for everyone? The reason is because distorting the free market by actions like guaranteed employment make us all poorer. It’s why communism doesn’t work. Paying people to do nothing is dumb.
My question is why is there such bipartisan support for this? This latest bill is from the GOP.
Oops, missed the reply button. Response below.
I don’t think it’s just about paying airline employees. They are not more important than any other industry. However, there are thousands MORE people getting ready to be without a job and very little opportunity to find another one. The larger picture is what happens to airlines when you slash those thousands of people from the payroll. You can’t fly, routes close, the travel industry and tourism and many businesses that depend upon flying can’t do business and therefore lose more jobs. It’s a bigger problem that has consequences that are much broader.
For the remainder of the third quarter, United expects travel demand to be down more than 70% and revenue down 85% compared to 2019 levels.
They need to sell back the $ amount of stock they bought back first.
Hard to trust anything coming from Senate Republicans right now – truly some of the most craven, deplorable people out there
Yeah, not like those noble rioters, looters and violent criminals on the left: destroying cities, destroying family owned businesses, stealing from the taxpayers, assaulting and killing innocent people. All for an issue that you don’t even care to look into the statistics or the individual facts of each case. Nope, just riot like it’s a knee jerk reaction. You sure do pick strange martyrs. Your idea of deplorable is truly skewed. Or those DNC goons that fabricate a false narrative about Russia collusion without a shred of evidence, tear the country apart, when the facts come out it’s all shown to be a lie bought and paid for by the DNC and carried out by deep state leftists, but they still have the gall to impeach based on a non-crime. Yeah, such fine people those Dems are. But congratulations for finally posting a comment that wasn’t of the orange man bad theme.
Or maybe this culture war is what’s so pernicious. What if both people looting and damaging innocent people’s property AND the Republicans who lie readily and support Trump at any cost are the problems
I fear that this mutual hatred and refusal to accept responsibility will be the death of America as a global superpower.
So true the bigger picture is to keep the economy moving. Hotels, restaurants etc depend on this movement. If the airlines shrink or go under its a ripple effect on those who depend on this fluidity of movement. I’M BEHIND THIS MOVE
The bill sponsor’s are odd as they are not from states with airlines industries.
Disagree with more airline bailouts.
I think the previous bailout and this one should have frozen all airline executive Sale/purchases of stock for 18-24 months.
It would have help eliminate some of the monkey business by CEOs.
Because buying votes by handing out government money right before an election is a long tradition. It’s the easiest time to push pork through, because nobody wants to be the one to say no free stuff for you, right before an election.
Aviation is important to many other industries. As a vaccine comes available, we are going to need the infrastructure to allow the economy to recover. If the sector is not protected, it will impede a recovery as airlines pull out of small communities like cities in Maine and lay-off workers who take lots of time to train.
I hope this doesn’t pass. Seriously, are there not more pressing money problems – like people who have lost their jobs or will lose their jobs (including airline employees) and maybe the government can hold up more/longer unemployment relief for them with these billions?
How about paying landlords directly for the rents they won’t receive for many months or years. You’re going to pay airlines to be staffed to the hilt so that they can pay many more employees than needed to stand around and look at one another ??? Senior people (ground staff) make upwards of $25-30/hour. Wow, must be nice to show up at a job, do about two hours worth of work available a day, collect all their other benefits and milk the system for another year. Ridiculous. Let them trim down and then build it all up again.
I understand Americans are hesitant to foot the bill for our airline workers, but let’s have some context. Obama attempted to gift Iran 150 billion dollars in hopes they would stop developing nuclear weapons – something they shouldn’t have been doing in the first place.
Get off your soapbox.
First of all, if USD 1.5 billion would stop a country from building nuclear weapons, it seems to me that would be a good investment. Secondly, and more importantly, the money that was given to Iran was money that belonged to Iran, whose assets in the US had been frozen and, therefore, not accessible to the Iranians. The actual amount is unknown, but whatever it was the money belonged to Iran and its return was part of the Joint Plan of Action of which China, Germany, UK, France, Russia, the EU and the US were all signatories. The following article should educate you about the facts of the Iran deal.
Here’s a link to the article; https://www.factcheck.org/2019/03/obama-didnt-give-iran-150-billion-in-cash/