Time is running out. It’s absolutely critical that lawmakers and the White House return to the table and extend relief for hundreds of thousands of pilots, flight attendants, and other aviation workers who face potential furlough as a result of the COVID-19 economic downturn.
Unless Congress acts to provide a financial backstop when the CARES Act Payroll Support Program expires on October 1, pilots and other airline employees will be forced to empty their savings, drain their retirement, delay seeking health care, and sacrifice their children’s future.
Adding to this personal financial devastation, failing to prevent aviation sector workers from losing their jobs will drain the U.S. economy as well as state and federal resources. In addition, the essential role that airlines play in fueling the global economy and supporting the U.S. military is threatened without government relief, as is our industry’s contribution to transporting American goods and services to support commerce and trade around the globe.
During this pandemic, airline pilots have brought U.S. citizens home; connected health-care workers, equipment, and supplies to pandemic hot spots; and provided essential transportation for people in small- and medium-sized communities that are now threatened by service reductions without a federal bridge to get our industry through the worst of this crisis.
ALPA pilots and the flying public have sent more than a quarter of a million messages to Capitol Hill urging lawmakers to extend the Payroll Support Program through March 31, 2021. Pilots from Texas to Florida have also sent nearly 100,000 tweets calling on their elected representatives to kick-start recovery for the airline industry, while sharing their stories on social media.
Lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle have acknowledged the importance of continued economic relief for aviation workers. Sixteen Republican senators and a bipartisan majority of House members have backed extending airline payroll support. And President Trump announced his support of a clean extension of the Payroll Support Program. Yet we have no agreement, and time is running out.
The Payroll Support Program expires on October 1. Airline pilots and other workers who’ve helped build the U.S. airline industry are running out of time.
To revive our economy, the United States needs a strong airline industry. And a strong airline industry requires a strong workforce. The more than 63,000 members of the Air Line Pilots Association need Congress and the White House to act now to restart talks and extend the Payroll Support Program through March 31, 2021.