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Airline Bail-Outs?
Are the Airlines trying to pull a fast one on Uncle Sam?

In the last few days, most of American air carriers have all joined as if it was "Hands Across America" to lay off thousands of employees. They blame last week's attacks and stock market down turns as culprit. Overbooked flights, massive cancellations and airport closings have made the airlines cry for help.

The government looks like they will concede several billion dollars in the form of grants and loans to keep them flying. So my question is; why are they laying off so many employees? The fact is, airlines are top heavy in salaries. The average airline CEO makes over $5 million dollars a year plus bonuses. Should they be slashing their own loot, I mean salary and lead the way.

It's really easy to see why I am so disgusted about it. The CEO of struggling US Air makes $12 million dollars a year. That's $12 million for somebody doing a mediocre job or about 400 average jobs that could be saved. On top of that he has a $40 million dollar parachute severance package if he were to either bail or shown the door.

In the 80's, Uncle Sam bail out the Chrysler Corporation under a whole different sets of circumstances. Newly then, CEO Lee Iacocca, was the right man for the job. His salary was one of a true leader. $1.00 was his take from his first year. It was very important for the American economy to help Chrysler remain a player. It would have been terrible for our economy to leave Ford and GM alone. It would have created a monopoly of sorts.

President Ronald Reagan did the right thing and eventually all parties involved got more out of it. This is the reason why the airlines need to be helped. The only difference is that the air carriers today are too big and fat to be helped.

The majority of these folks, just like in many other businesses today are falling prey to the realities of the bad economy perhaps created by a long line of bad decisions. The leaders of industry do not want to be held responsible for their bad judgments and face the wrath of investors and stockholders.

Last week's attacks are a perfect scapegoat or should I say, opportunity for this vultures, I mean venture capitalists to pass the buck. By the way, not to you!

To add insult to injury, American Airlines and TWA announced recently that they have decided to eliminate all together serving meals on most of their domestic flights to their coach passengers starting in a few weeks. The carriers say, that this will keep prices down while speeding the process of boarding into the aircrafts.

So if you are planning on flying, make sure you bag your meal yourself. Just a factual note; the hijackers were first class passengers, so in the future, they will be served their last meals, while the rest of us eats out of our own bags.

What are the American people going to do about it? Well, that remains to be seen. In the meantime the airlines will pass the blame to you.

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