Travel News - Airlines Can Expect ~$3 Billion in Aid from Congress

From USAToday (and others):
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Two key congressional committees tacked more than $3 billion in aid for the airline industry onto an emergency war spending bill Tuesday.</font>

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The precise size and format of the aid package is still to be determined. The House committee approved a $3.2 billion measure that would rebate to the airlines the passenger and security fees imposed after Sept. 11, 2001.

The Senate's $3.5 billion measure would provide a six-month holiday from the passenger and security fees, $1.5 billion to help defray the costs of hardened cockpit doors and other security measures added after the Sept. 11 attacks, extend federal "war risk" insurance guarantees for one year and give laid-off airline workers an extra 26 weeks of unemployment benefits.</font>

While some say the President will not sign the bill with the benefits added, they did pass unanimously in each chamber's Appropriations Committee. If the House and Senate themselves pass it unanimously, or by large margins, I doubt Bush will veto (as he is assured it being overturned if Congress wants to).

[This message has been edited by SEA_Tigger (edited 04-02-2003).]

I'd love a tax holiday, but the airlines would probably just jack up fares. So I'd pay higher airfares and still be paying the tax, it would just come out of my income tax pool, not my direct airline ticket tax.

Why are airline employees any more entitled to extended unemployment benefits than anyone else?

At this point, I'm still not in favor of any more help for the airlines. Unless some major, major changes happen (more than the cost cutting that is already going on) I don't think this market is going to be able to support this many majors.

d

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Doppy:
I'd love a tax holiday, but the airlines would probably just jack up fares. So I'd pay higher airfares and still be paying the tax, it would just come out of my income tax pool, not my direct airline ticket tax.

Why are airline employees any more entitled to extended unemployment benefits than anyone else?

At this point, I'm still not in favor of any more help for the airlines. </font>

Actually, a tax holiday is the only kind of aid to the airlines I would support. We've already seen that direct financial handouts do absolutely nothing to improve the operational or managerial acumen of those in charge; that they are, in fact, counterproductive, by serving to reward poor business decisions. If there has to be aid granted, let's at least try a different tack, eh?

But as for your conclusion, I agree with you one hundred percent: I don't think the airline industry should receive another dime from taxpayers. Obviously, the industry is not in danger of mass liquidation -- there are still US-based carriers which are profitable, for God's sake. So those which are efficient need to be allowed to prosper; those which are not need to be dismantled.

And to those who would complain that this would leave people with fewer choices, or with less or no service to many smaller areas: Nature abhors a vacuum. Properly-run big businesses can be surprisingly dynamic when billions of consumer dollars are at stake, and would quickly move to capture market share left by liquidated carriers.

Mook

Hi,

According to cnn.com ;

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/04/01/congress.airlines/index.html

All passengers would still pay the levy, but the airlines would not pass this on to Washington .

Regards
TBS