Well, that didn’t take long.
Not even three days after President Trump signed the stimulus package into law on Friday, U.S. airlines want that $50 billion more sooner than later.
The CEOs of American, Delta, United, Alaska, JetBlue, Southwest and Hawaiian airlines, as well as three cargo and package carriers, wrote a letter to the U.S. Treasury Dept. asking the feds to move quickly to release the $25 billion in grants and $25 billion in loans, according to Reuters.
The letter suggested the loans be divided by each passenger carrier’s pro-rata share of “system available seat miles” for 2019 operations. For cargo carriers, which will receive $8 billion, the letters said the loans should be divided by “revenue ton-miles” for 2019 operations.
The airlines stressed in the letter “that we are speaking with one voice when we propose these formula allocations.”
But American Airlines said last week that as the carrier that spent more on salaries and benefits than any other airline, it deserves $12 billion of the $50 billion pie.
Whether or not they get that, or whether the entire industry receives its stimulus more sooner than later, remains to be seen.
Source: Read Full Article