US: Airlines are No. 1 priority for virus relief, Trump says

The airline industry “would be the number one” priority for federal assistance in the wake of drops in travel because Covid-19, president Donald Trump said Wednesday. “They go from having the best year they’ve ever had to having no passengers because of what we had to do to win this war,” Trump said at a briefing on the administration’s response to the virus. The Treasury Department will propose lending airlines US$50b in a coronavirus stimulus plan, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg News. Such a proposal would fall short of the aid being sought by the industry, which requested $29b in grants and another $29b in loans. <br/>Other travel industry groups, which have seen plunging revenues as people adhere to warnings about spreading the virus, are also seeking billions of dollars of govt help. <br/>