Flight attendant union furious with Treasury bailout offers
"This will lead to airline bankruptcies," said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants union. "The Treasury Department is destabilizing the industry, not helping save it."30% of each cash grant offer a low interest loan payable to the federal government.
"This is not what Congress approved," said one industry executive who asked not to be identified given the ongoing discussions between airlines and the Treasury Department. "The aid was supposed to be $25 billion in cash grants and $25 billion in loans." When the offers came on Friday, they included the stipulation airlines accepting grants not lay off employees before September 30th, a requirement all carriers have already committed to meeting. Still, executives at multiple airlines told CNBC they were surprised by the loan component in the grants. They say it means Treasury will award just over half of the money they requested to cover their payrolls for the next six months.
Nelson says reducing the immediate cash amount airlines will not have to repay amounts to Treasury taking money Congress earmarked to immediately pay airline workers and turning it into a loan airlines may opt not to take. Nelson and her team spent Saturday trying to reach members of the a Treasury Department to discuss Secretary Mnuchin's plan for awarding grants. "We have called, we have sent e-mails, but there has been no conversation with Treasury," she said.
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