Originally Posted by
Wheelswatch
Stupidest post ever. Essential is also moving people to be with family who may be sick or dying. It's also about moving Soldiers and Sailors to and from duty stations. It's also about moving some, albeit far less than legacy, business. And a host of other reasons. If it were not true they wouldn't have run EAS B1900s between small towns and larger cities throughout the US for years.
But this isn't about being essential, it's about keeping the payroll flowing to workers. The govt grant is chiefly for that reason.
What's more, if your legacy airlines didn't operate so far out ahead of their ski's they wouldn't be in such precarious straits. They're going to need far more than a mini bailout meant to keep from furloughing, and I guess I'll be paying for it like the rest of America.
We want the cheese? Give me a break. We want to keep our pilots from furlough, in hopes this gets going again soon, just like you do.
I know what essential means...maybe that's why you could keep flying IAW the bill. All those people you mentioned need to get places more often than you apparently want to take them. BTW, how many EAS do you operate? If the grant money is paying for the majority of labor costs, what's the problem actually flying the routes? Fuel is cheap and you're paying the leases on the planes anyway right? I don't understand how the benefit of shutting down those flights outweighs risk that you might not getting the grant.
Then why are the airlines the ONLY industry with a special carve out? Like I said, I wish you all the best, but you should play by the same rules. Funny you talk about OTHER airlines in precarious straits... The airlines that were 'out ahead of their skis' were the ones that lobbied for, and achieved, this stimulus carveout.
I hope we ALL get out of this relatively unscathed and end up back in the same competitive positions we were in on Jan 1st.