Out of ideas for competing in a brutal climate, the struggling big airlines are begging Washington for policies that will help them survive.
The latest industry figure to seek assistance is the chief executive of Delta Air Lines, Gerald Grinstein.
In an interview on Thursday, he called on federal officials to establish a comprehensive aviation policy that would offer the companies specific guidelines in areas like bankruptcy, mergers, fuel prices and taxation.
But industry analysts say the airlines may not get the help they are seeking, because there is not a place within government for one-stop policy shopping.
At the same time, with the government already involved in the airline industry through costly measures including pension bailouts and federal loan guarantees, there may be a reluctance to offer more assistance.
"The basic problems go beyond something public policy is likely to address," said Philip Baggaley, an airline industry analyst with Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.
Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, who has discussed similar concerns with labor leaders, is always willing to meet with industry officials, said a department spokesman, Brian Turmail. But, he said, the department's primary mission is to ensure the safety and efficiency of the nation's transportation.
"I'd hate to give the impression that we're ready to set sweeping policy across the industry," Turmail said on Thursday.
Though the airlines' safety and security remain under government control, former US president Jimmy Carter deregulated other aspects of the industry in 1978, including fares and routes.
Grinstein said he did not support reregulating the airlines, an issue raised by union officials after travelers encountered widespread delays over the Christmas holidays.
But Grinstein said that the industry was too important to the nation's welfare for government agencies, Congress and the White House to ignore it.
"There ought to be some understanding of what may have to take place in the industry" so that big airlines, which have lost US$30 billion since 2000, can become successful again, Grinstein said.
His plea for a wide-ranging aviation policy comes amid a wave of moves in Washington by major airlines.
Grinstein's company is among a number of airlines that are aggressively backing legislation that would allow them to stretch out their overdue pension contributions. Also, the federal pension agency has reached a US$1.5 billion deal with United Airlines that would give it a stake in the company when it emerges from bankruptcy protection, which it entered in 2002.
The federal Air Transportation Stabilization Board already has a stake in some airlines, thanks to packages of loan guarantees awarded after the September 2001 terrorist attacks.
Two of those airlines -- US Airways, which is in bankruptcy protection, and America West -- are in merger talks.
Collectively, they owe more than US$1 billion on federally backed loans, which might have to be restructured if the two companies combine.
The industry's most profitable airline, Southwest Airlines, is also asking for action. It wants Congress to repeal the Wright Amendment, which limits the number of states that airlines can serve from Love Field in Dallas, where Southwest is based.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary