Airlines Send Letter Asking for Stimulus Money Sooner Than Later

Not even three days after Trump signed the stimulus package into law, 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 jointly 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, coronavirus-airlines/major-airlines-urge-u-s-treasury-to-disburse-assistance-quickly-idUSKBN21H0A0″ target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer”>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. The grants to cover employee salaries should sway in American’s direction is it is based on 2019 payroll. Last week Southwest Airlines offered voluntary partially paid leaves to avoid accepting stimulus money, but it appears they’ve changed their mind?