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Do Airlines Warrant being Rescued

Started by the mad hatter, Thu, 19 Mar 2020 12:01

the mad hatter

Considering that Delta by way of example made 5,000,000,000,000.00 USD profit and payed ZERO tax (depends if you are in US or Europe as to how many zeros in a billion) are we really accountable for fiscal irresponsibility  same with other majors.. If I as an individual (Company's in the US are classed as individuals) mismanage my money no one rescues me I have to live with the consequences! !   Delta have 2.88B in cash reserves that's over 200 kilos or 400 odd pounds in 100 dollar notes and they can not operate for a month !   I guess Boeing will be getting past missed subsidies after all except in a lump sum in the way of zero based loans again tax free 

Captain_al

Companies like Boeing/Airlines did not save for a rainy day and now the typhoon is here. What was more important were stock buybacks to inflate EPS making the share price increase, making fat cats even fatter with their inflated compensation packages. No one could foresee what a pandemic would do to the aviation industry, but now you have all this whining about government bailouts from these same companies. Boeing is the perfect example of a company who has abandoned their core values that were established years ago, but now have a HQ far removed from SEA and a Training Center (MIA) far removed from SEA, and an emphasis on Wall Street by bean counters. Engineering and safety have taken a back seat. It is not going to change when the same folks that created this culture are still in place. My 2 cents...

Will

I agree about Boeing; it's been mentioned on this forum a few times how sad it's been to watch the company transition from being more or less run by engineers who love building airplanes, to a company run by financiers who love maximizing shareholder value.

There are at least two good long-form treatments of this in magazines, I think the Atlantic and maybe the New Republic have good stories about Boeing's transformation. Lots of anecdotes too, like about how the first 777 prototype flew, but the first handful of 787s couldn't even though they were supposed to, because all the outsourced components didn't fit together when delivered.
Will /Chicago /USA