More Airline Worker Furloughs Likely Even With Additional Coronavirus Aid
Skift Take
Airlines promised that more payroll assistance would allow them to avoid dramatic staffing reductions. That relief is now here to the tune of $15 billion but it looks like the furloughs, while temporarily rolled back, are still coming.
As good as the news was for U.S. airlines with additional aid as part of the $900 billion Covid-19 relief package approved by Congress on Monday, a stark reality awaits.
The package doles out $15 billion in additional payroll support to airlines that will see them bring back the more than 30,000 employees who were involuntarily furloughed after October 1. These are furloughs that occurred when Congress failed to extend the provision in the first federal coronavirus aid package, or CARES Act, by its September 30 expiry.
The payroll support extension "will keep critical employees on the job—and out of the unemployment line—so they can perform essential services as our country looks toward recovery," said trade group Airlines for America (A4A) president and CEO Nicholas Calio in a tweet Monday.
But even with the hard-won relief, the economic impact of the pandemic will still loom large over the airline industry.
Passenger numbers remain at historic lows at the beginning of the Christmas and New Year’s travel season. Even with screenings at pandemic highs over the weekend, the number of people passing through Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints remains down aroun
