America’s airlines are down, but that’s not stopping Democratic senators from kicking them. That at least, is the immediate reaction by airline leaders to suggestions by senators Ed Markey, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris to cough up an estimated $10bn in flight cancellations and hand it out to Americans who are struggling to make ends meet. In fact, the issue of whether consumer protection should extend to flights cancelled as a result of the coronavirus is hotly debated on both sides of the Atlantic. The European Union recently rejected attempts by European carriers to issue vouchers to their clients rather than straight refunds, despite concerns that this would leave around 40 percent of them bankrupt. But the senators insist that airlines operating in the United States shouldn’t be allowed to hold on to the money they collected for services they didn’t provide when millions of Americans had lost their jobs and were finding it difficult to cover rent and food bills. “In light of this pressing need, and the unprecedented multi-billion-dollar bailout that the airline industry just received from Congress, we are absolutely outraged that so few airlines are willing to offer real cash refunds to consumers who must cancel their tickets.”
In further bad news for the industry, Cathay Pacific announced that it would be firing 300 people and closing its five North American crew bases, located in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Toronto, and Vancouver. The Hong Kong-based airline had already been hurt by violent street protests in its home base, so the Covid-19 pandemic has only made a difficult situation worse.
