Old 05-16-2015, 06:47 AM
  #222  
Sink r8
Gets Weekends Off
 
Joined APC: Jun 2009
Posts: 5,113
Default

Originally Posted by Gillegan View Post
Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code is NOT a government subsidy. What IT IS is a mechanism that is not available in the rest of the world for a company to reorganize on backs of its shareholders, creditors and employees. The practical application of that is that it has allowed U.S. companies to reduce operating costs. In much of the rest of the world, similar reorganization is not available and they must either trudge on or liquidate. I believe that the ability to have something short of liquidation is enlightened BUT IT DOES uneven the competitive playing field from the perspective of companies that have to compete with that.

Not all of the White Paper or the accompanying 1000 page report dealt with subsidies. They also used examples of relationships, mechanisms and infrastructure that caused an "uneven" playing field in their opinion. I think the point is that it works both ways and the US3 are not the only aggrieved parties.

Where direct subsidies can be proved, by all means do something as an agreement was signed that precluded them but given the anti-trust immunity that the major U.S. carriers have for their alliances and the consolidation that has been allowed at the expense of consumers, I can't help but see some similarities with the behavior of the large U.S. companies in the late 19th and early 20th century. The US3 have gotten almost everything they have asked for and now they want more.
I think you're accidentally arguing against yourself. The CH 11 process, which was known to all signatories to these treaties, is arguably better than the system in place at some European airlines.

But no system comes even close to having the State being willing to back-stop any loss or difficulty, because the state is the owner of the airline. Hedge loss? No problem? Losing money on routes? No problem.

Nothing is a problem, really, when the state, the airline, and the owner are undistinguishable from one another. If they really want to inject restructuring into the discussion, the ME3 look foolish trying to equate the CH11 system to subsidies, when their own airline have the ultimate downside protection.
Sink r8 is offline