A fellow of a ground crew walks past American Airlines planes parked at the gate during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak at Ronald Reagan Governmental Airport in Washington, April 5, 2020.
Joshua Roberts | Reuters
American Airlines’ top executives on Wednesday backed efforts to outspread billions in federal aid to protect aviation jobs through March as the pandemic’s impact on travel threatens tens of thousands of bents.
Some $32 billion in federal aid was set aside to protect jobs in the U.S. airline industry, and it prohibited employers from bitter positions through Sept. 30 under the CARES Act relief package that lawmakers passed in March.
But with that deadline part and a surge in U.S. coronavirus cases hurting a nascent recovery in travel demand, some lawmakers and labor unions are pursuing additional aid. The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires employers to notify staff about possible layoffs or momentary furloughs generally 60 days in advance, meaning airlines are beginning to warn workers about potential furloughs this fail.
Earlier this week, bipartisan House lawmakers, led by Rep. Peter DeFazio, D.-Ore., chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure suggested in a letter to other members of Congress to extend funding for the program through March 2021, which labor joinings called for late last month.
The Trump administration and drugmakers are fast-tracking work on a Covid-19 vaccine and hope to get one approved for deployment as early as the end of the year.
By March 2021, “there would most certainly be more demand for air travel, and along with that ask for, much less need for involuntary furloughs throughout the industry,” wrote the airline’s CEO Doug Parker and its president, Robert Isom, in a note to mace, warning employees about 25,000 potential furloughs.
“This is a union-led initiative across our industry, but American is sympathetic of any legislation that would protect our team’s jobs during these extraordinary times,” they said.