So when he says that the 'US Airlines get subsidizes from the US Government due to the bankruptcy laws in the United States', you believe that?
Apparently you have forgotten the two-thirds of the $15 billion bailout doled out by the Department of Transportation from the Federal government funds approved by the President that went to the major carriers after 9/11. (5 billion in direct payments and 10 billion in loan guarantees for lost business). $20 million was shoveled to three bankrupt airlines like Vanguard, Midway, and Reliant. They also lost money on the loan guarantees to ATA Airlines and Aloha Airlines. Look at how many major carriers filed for bankruptcy after the bailouts. 80% of the monies went to the 9 largest commercial carriers at that time.UAL for instance, got the biggest slice of the pie at $644 million. The biggest airlines essentially got everything they asked for, and responded by laying off thousands of employees, drastically reducing service and eventually soon after filing for bankruptcy. More than 70,000 workers were fired and hundreds of flights were canceled after the bailout was signed into law. The golden parachutes and management payouts and bennies never missed a beat, however.
If the bailout wasn't enough for taxpayer-financed subsidies, the economic stimulus bill passed by Congress in March also allowed companies to file amended tax returns and receive refunds on taxes paid in past years for losses incurred in 2002 and 2001. UAL for example, received a $464 million tax refund, bringing their total compensation to over $1 billion. AA, DAL and other carriers also greatly benefited from the refunds.
Further, at the expense of taxpayers, the federal government has become a financial backstop for numerous failing airline carriers. Most of the companies that received a federal cash infusion had fiscal troubles that before both the events of September 11th and the economic slowdown. Bailing out unprofitable airlines only papers-over the long-term and structural problems of an embattled industry. Again, look at the mergers, BKs and simply no longer in business that has happened since then.
Small example: From 2012 WSJ: "American Airlines has saved $2.1 billion since 2006, thanks to two congressional measures that allowed it to reduce contributions to its pension plans. The company said it would make up any shortfall later.
Later has come, but there’s been a change in that plan.
American Airlines, whose parent company filed for bankruptcy in November, said this week that i wnats to terminate it's four pension plans for 130,000 workers and retirees and ask the federal government’s Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. to bail out its unfunded pension obligations to the tune of $9 billion. It would be the largest PBGC bailout ever. Without the congressional relief, the gap would have been smaller, the PBGC said.
The move, which needs approval from a New York judge, has angered the PBGC and labor unions representing American Airlines workers, in part because the airline had $4 billion in cash when it filed for bankruptcy and because it hasn’t yet made any proposal for restructuring its massive debt to financial institutions.
“American and other carriers have repeatedly asked Congress to give them funding relief in the last six years. More than $2 billion was diverted from their pension funds to their bankruptcy war chest,”Josh Gotbaum director of the PBGC, said Friday. “In effect, the Congress of the United States and the employees of American Airlines provided half of the money to sustain American in bankruptcy.”
You need to study up on the details of the BKs that the carriers have filed (some of them twice now) and just how much money the government has given them and just how the bankruptcy laws for those carriers has financially enhanced them, because they surely have.
BKs have become the norm for how carriers operate now. If you don't think that BKs are planned by management, then you are even more naive than I thought.
Here's an older but good article for you:
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/17858408/ns/business-us_business/t/airlines-bankruptcy-land/#.VJi0tf8JAA
