I forget the exact dates of the foregiveness but one date was around Jan of 2004 and the other was two or three months later. This should never should have happened. Bush claims to be a free marketeer and he lets bankrupt companies stay in business and ruin the other airlines in the process. When PAA and EAL go out of business there is no reason why US Air should have been allowed to stay in business. I am not advocating anything sinister but just to let the market play out naturally.
What does it say about the pension issue. How much did US Air put on the taxpayers for voting to give up their pension? $2 Billion, $3 Billion and did they ever pay back the US government. I think no is the answer. So they never paid back the money and then they dump untold amount of money on the taxpayers. What a deal for us!