Originally Posted by
nene
I don't know about AS, but all the legacies would have absolutely furloughed (perhaps even SWA) if uncle sugar (US Feds) hadn't come in with $Billions$ to essentially pay companies not to furlough.
That's never happened before. After 9/11, many airlines furloughed and the feds didn't kick in jack. The Feds came up with the ATSB (Air Transportation Stabilization Board) which just had the feds guarantee loans for smaller airlines that didn't have any liquidity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Tr...lization_Board
By any metric, COVID without the free $$$$ from the Feds would have resulted in thousands of airline employees in a furloughed status.
I don't think you noticed this. The .gov threw a ton of $$$ at all businesses. It wasn't limited to the airline industry.
I was just watching on CNBC today where some (live performance) theater exec was screaming for moar .gov money; the two or three 'loans' (which turned to grants) weren't enough for his appetite, in spite of being open at a reduced capacity through most of the pandemic.
My point is that the airline industry wasn't a 'golden child' by any stretch.