The following is a transcript of a report from "Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson." Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.
In the early months of the Covid pandemic, the airlines claimed to be on the brink of collapse. Then the government offered billions of dollars in taxpayer support. They survived, but claim to be on the brink again. Scott Thuman looks at the airline industry’s rocky ride.
Until the pandemic hit, America was in a golden age of aviation, record passenger numbers, and healthy airline profits. That all changed overnight.
The first punch of Covid-19 meant empty seats, up to 90 percent fewer travelers. And the 2nd wave, destroyed any prospect of a rebound this year.
Nick Calio: We're in a rut, Scott. We expected an uptick for Christmas, that is probably not going to happen. We're seeing a lot of cancellations and a lot fewer bookings right now.
Nick Calio is president and CEO of Airlines for America, representing the major U.S. carriers.
Scott: When you look at the money, how are you doing now?
Calio: Losing about $5 billion a month. We had hoped by this point we would be at zero, a break-even point. Now we're hoping that maybe in the spring sometime we can reach break-even.
Congress already gave the airlines $25 billion dollars in March, but nothing since.
Scott: How long can you go without more help from Congress?
Calio: We can't go very long. When Congress failed to meet that October 1st deadline, we furloughed tens of thousands more employees. There are tens of thousand more furloughs in the bank right now and coming up if Congress doesn't act.
Critics say Washington shouldn’t give more. For example, Delta and United on their own came up with almost $16 billion, by using the value of their frequent flyer programs.
Scott: if you look ahead to 2021, what's flying going to look like versus now?
Calio: Hopefully it'll look much like it used to, only cleaner, more efficient and people will be safer.
But to soar again is more complicated than just buckling up.
Calio: You can't just start up a plane that's been sitting idle. You can't take an airline pilot, flight attendant, machinist, gate agent, who'd been idle and just put them back because of the rigorous safety standards we have with certification and retraining.
For Full Measure, I’m Scott Thuman.
http://fullmeasure.news/news/shows/up-in-the-air-12-18-2020
The threat of the vaccine passport echos china. Me suspects they are keeping many of these airlines afloat to support their socialist agenda.
Low level airline employees acted like assholes when it came to 2 year olds who wouldn’t wear a mask. You banned families for life for this and threatened to do so when my wife simply had a question about it..
Some of you flight attend are ridiculous and should find employment somewhere else. Hard to feel sorry for an industry that treats their own customers so badly.
Give them $600 and a pat on the head and send them on their way.
Let them die. No mo bail outs of big corps.
Sharyl,
Speaking of “up in the air,”—recall Megyn had cited Kubler-Ross (( her death and TRANSITIONing research )).
Did you listen to Justin hosting
for Beck this morning—re a “dead”
man’s OBE (( out of body experience )) ?
While I hadn’t met her, Ross and I had had mutual connections, such as Robert A. Monroe—affectionately called, “Mr. OUT-OF-BODY.”
There is an internationally known advice columnist who had exchanged letters with me, in the Nineties, re her childhood OBEs and my own adult experiences.
Maybe Megyn’s reference to Ross is related to that phenomenon—her own up-in-the-air experience(s).
-Rick
Well if the airlines were not treating us like a disease, maybe we would fly again. The flight attendants are bullies and there is no customer service. It's horrible to fly right now. They truly hate their customers.
Beth (( and Sharyl and Full Measure Team )),
Follow Helena’s commentaries, as you’ll have
a far better understanding of what EVIL is
afoot in the land—and the WHO? and WHY? :
https://helenaglass.wpcomstaging.com/2020/12/28/pandemic-provided-means-for-africa-colonization-and-universal-green-deal/
-Rick
P.S.
Risking a bit, here (( Sharyl, tie all of my posts together—on paper )) :
Find what the late-19th-century Rabbi Waton had proclaimed,
in order to understand the genesis of this action by China :
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/video-expert-ramsland-audit-savannah-georgia-shows-tabulation-machines-sending-results-china/