However hard we try, it is difficult to think of an international industry that has been harder hit by COVID-19 than the airline industry. Jobs in multiple sectors have been decimated and most assessments of a likely time frame for a global economic recovery are skeptical about putting anything even remotely resembling a time frame on the normalisation of the industry.
Yesterday, Thursday, October 1, the industry was scheduled to sink into further doldrums with 40,000 workers facing loss of jobs unless the US Congress could come up with an aid package to further delay what is widely believed to be the inevitable.
The workers have been, up until now, reportedly benefitting from a US$25 billion payroll support programme to America’s airlines that have kept thousands of flight attendants, baggage handlers, gate agents, and other categories on partial pay.