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IPFS News Link • Transportation: Air Travel

U.S. airlines want a $50 billion bailout. They spent $45 billion buying back their stock.

• https://www.stamfordadvocate.com, Allan Sloan

But it's a sure bet that a ton of money will be earmarked for our nation's four biggest airlines - American, Delta, Southwest and United.

And it's also a sure bet that the Big Four Flyers would need a lot less bailout money if they hadn't sent almost $45 billion to Wall Street over the past five years to keep shareholders happy. That's not much less than the $50 billion airline bailout package that's being proposed.

I'm not saying that we should just let these airlines collapse. Even though bankruptcies are not unknown in the airline business, having them collapse now would add even more instability to our economy and endanger even more jobs.

But what I am saying is that the terms of the bailout money that the airlines get from us should reflect the fact that a substantial part of their current financial problem is of their own making.

So I think it's only fair for taxpayers to get a substantial piece of the upside in return for bailing out these companies. And in the process, bailing out their shareholders, who would be left with nothing if the companies failed.


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