Originally Posted by
Alpine Flyer
Without government help Europe will be without a significant airline industry in half a year. Short work technically is not an airline subsidy but an employee subsidy as money lost through short-time work is covered by the unemployment insurance (reasoning that this is still cheaper than real unemployment).
One may easily also suspect an economic-political background to the decison to halt North Atlantic passenger traffic. There may well be a few leaders thinking "We are the greatest" and hope for a stronger comeback of the national airline industry, losing some "nasty" competitors in the no-fly period.