Qantas says government support for aviation may need to continue beyond March next year because airlines are in the middle of the biggest crisis the industry has ever faced. The Senate select committee on Covid-19 heard evidence on Tuesday regarding the impact of job losses and uncertainty across aviation businesses. Catering staff excluded from the jobkeeper wage subsidy said they were making “heartbreaking” choices between paying the rent and buying groceries. The former Macquarie Group boss, Nicholas Moore, also faced questions about his role as the government’s go-between with the administrators of struggling second airline Virgin Australia, saying he was being paid $1 for the position and that he had declared his personal interests to the Treasury. Executives from the flag carrier Qantas told the hearing they saw a need for government assistance for the industry to go beyond March 2021 – the cutoff point for the newly extended jobkeeper scheme. Andrew Parker, a Qantas executive, said Scott Morrison’s decision on Tuesday to continue jobkeeper until March was important because it would give the company more time to assess the state of the economy and border restrictions. This would pave the way for further discussions with government. He said programs like the aviation relief package were important for Qantas and others as “we’ve all got lots of bills to pay”. Parker said Qantas “would very much encourage” the government to continue to offer relief on aviation fees and charges “well into the middle of next year to help us in this start-up phase, to try to keep that $40m a week cash burn as low as possible”.<br/>