President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he would extend the airline payroll as the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect his business.
Trump’s support comes after 16 senators signed a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., asking for the extension to spare potentially tens of thousands of airline jobs that are at risk after current funding is exhausted at the end of September.
“We don’t want to lose our airlines,” Trump told reporters at a White House briefing on Wednesday. “If they’re looking at that, whether they’re Republican or Democrat, I’d certainly be in favor.”
Unions representing airline employees and more than 200 members of the House of Representatives have supported an extension of CARES Act funding for airlines, which received $25 billion from Congress when it passed the law in March.
“This provision is the most successful jobs program of COVID relief and maintains service to all of our communities,” said Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. “This provision was adopted in March with bipartisan support and has even broader support now as a proven program.”
More than 8,000 airline pilots have received notices that they could be furloughed, according to the Air Line Pilots Association.
“Unless we all act now, this aid, and the strong labor protections attached to it, will expire Oct. 1,” said the union’s president, Joe DePete, “even though the virus is not under control and the travel industry remains devastated.”
Although the air has recovered a little from the lowest point in April, when much of the country remained at home, it is still a fraction of what it was a year ago. On Tuesday, the Transportation Security Administration counted a little over 537,000 ers at security checkpoints at airports across the country. A year ago, there were more than 2.3 million.
“Clearly, the airline industry isn’t doing very well,” Trump said Wednesday. “I think it’s very vital that airlines.”