America West Offer Stock to Govt.
 

News stories yesterday in US have America West offering 10% stake in the company to the U.S. government in return for financial assistance from the fund appropriated for airline aid due to impact (no pun intended) of 9/11.

Question: should the U.S. gov. take an equity stake in America West (or any airline) in return for financial assistance? Discuss. Examples. Extra points for graphs.

No taxpayer bailout for bankrupt management at semi bankrupt America West. :(

Too dangerous of a precedent and definitely not a smart investement.

I think enough taxpayer money has been dumped to conveniently bail out some formerly-over eager CEOs.

Australian taxpayers should be very thankful the Australian Labor Party lost the recent election, (or even moreso, that bob hawke (sic) is no longer the leader of that august organisation (sic again)), or they would probably be now bailing America West out with Australian Dollars by inviting that airline to come out to Australia - again - to provide replacement capacity for Ansett after that airline's demise.

I'm sure there are many good people working for America West. However, I (and I suspect many others who once worked in Australian Aviation) find it difficult to look past the unspeakable scum in that airline who came out to Australia in 1989 to 'hold the fort' while Ansett trained up a home grown version of the same. Kaptain M, it looks like you can add another one of the airlines involved in the sorry mess of 1989 to your list of dead'uns.