What happened to the $79 Billion Bailout?
American, Spirit, Southwest Airlines: What happened to the $79 Billion Bailout?
Airlines in the United States received over $79 billion in bailout money across three COVID-related bills in 2020-2021 to help them, their employees, and the air travel industry survive the worst of the COVID pandemic. Congress intended this money to go to pilots, flight attendants, and other airline and airport employees to ensure they were paid during the severely depressed demand period and to ensure that the airlines would have the capacity to meet the increased travel demand as soon as the Covid situation improved.
- FlyersRights, a consumer advocacy organization has called for an oversight hearings with airline CEOs plus labor and passenger representatives.
- Airlines were given massive federal subsidies to keep public air service strong and reduce COVID infection.
- Recent record high cancellations, flight delays, plus airline opposition to some important CDC guidelines call into question whether taxpayer money has been misused by airline management.
“American Airlines, Spirit Airlines, and Southwest Airlines, completely failed the American people” - FlyersRights.org President Paul Hudson
Massive Airline Cancellations
Throughout the summer, airlines have canceled hundreds of flights per day because they did not have enough employees ready to go. On its worst day, Spirit Airlines canceled over half of its scheduled flights.
This is unacceptable, and Senator Maria Cantwell, the Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, sent a letter on this subject to the airlines in July. FlyersRights.org met with her staff to discuss the issue on September 1st and to propose the solution to the latest of airline abuses.
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