US: Airlines wait as Treasury applies strings to payroll aid
The Treasury Department has missed a deadline to start paying airlines to keep workers employed, and the two sides were still negotiating terms of the federal help Monday. The chief holdup is Treasury’s insistence that some of the US$25b in payroll assistance be in the form of loans, not cash. The impasse suggests that airlines will face a harder job getting federal help than they expected. Airline stocks fell Monday. The airlines thought they had a deal last month: Congress agreed to give passenger airlines $25b in cash grants to cover payroll costs for 6 months. But Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin told CEs of the 6 largest airlines Friday that 30% of the aid instead would be low-interest loans that they would have to pay back with securities that could be converted to stock. That surprised the airlines. <br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2020-04-14/general/us-airlines-wait-as-treasury-applies-strings-to-payroll-aid
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US: Airlines wait as Treasury applies strings to payroll aid
The Treasury Department has missed a deadline to start paying airlines to keep workers employed, and the two sides were still negotiating terms of the federal help Monday. The chief holdup is Treasury’s insistence that some of the US$25b in payroll assistance be in the form of loans, not cash. The impasse suggests that airlines will face a harder job getting federal help than they expected. Airline stocks fell Monday. The airlines thought they had a deal last month: Congress agreed to give passenger airlines $25b in cash grants to cover payroll costs for 6 months. But Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin told CEs of the 6 largest airlines Friday that 30% of the aid instead would be low-interest loans that they would have to pay back with securities that could be converted to stock. That surprised the airlines. <br/>
