Govt. Payout

[Astronut]

As reported in the press today the Govt. is to reward airlines with £44m for exceptionally bad management under the pretence that they deserve the help following Sept. 11. I don't suppose any of that will help those needlessly laid off by same bad management and need the help more.

[Hand Solo]

Sadly it probably won't Astronut. It's probably no consolation to you but it may help some others avoid your situation who otherwise would face the same fate due to the £10 billion subsidy the American carriers got.

[Wino]

First of all it was 5 billion dollars and that was compensation for the time that the airlines were forced to be on the ground during government action.

The 10 billion dollars that you refer to is a loan guarantee program that only America West has used. Furthermore it is unilikely that other airlines will go that route because of the loss of controll involved. No airline competing with foreign airlines (like AA or UAL or DAL) have received one nickle of that 10 billion dollars.

Again, believe what you want, but this isn't AirFrance or Olympic or BA for that matter.

Cheers
Wino

[Hand Solo]

Oh sorry, I didn't realise it was only a measley $5 billion. Mere pocket change! Of course all the US carriers were in a sound financial position prior to Sept 11th and the begging bowl has nothing to do with existing problems exacerbated by the US airspace shutdown. Incidentally, $5 billion dwarfs all payments paid to Air France and Olympic, and BA haven't received a penny in government cash since their privatisation, which was around 1986 I think.

[Wino]

And each and every one of the the airlines that you mention is smaller than the top 5 of the various American airlines, so if someone is operating 2 jets and is given 2 billion dollars vs someone operating 200 jets given the same amount of money, who is really getting the larger bailout? As a percentage of the size of the company the bailouts recieved by the European Airlines were many times larger. Furthermore, you have left out the inflation factor...

But again, none of the European airlines were first ORDERED TO PARK THEIR ALL THIER JETS for the better part of a week stopping revenue and driving up expenses as all the diverted pax were required to be put up. The five billion pretty fairly equates the cost of the shut down, I agree the 10 billion loan afterward would be unnecesary and shouldn't be around. But since virtually no airlines are going to submit to the draconian measures required to receive it, it will be mute.

Let me remind you again. The US airspace was shut down by government order. If that Happens in Europe I would have no heartburn at all for European airlines to be compensated for the actions of their government.

And if what happened with BA doesn't matter, then money Boeing received in the 50's to develope the KC135 certainly doesn't matter (the last time a boeing pax jet was directly supported by the miliary) but all the Airbus rah rah crowd would beg to differ with you.

Cheers
Wino

[GlueBall]

In any case, it's a taxpayer ripoff to be subsidizing private industry, especially badly managed airlines which would have and should have and probably will anyway...go bankrupt.