Fri, Jan 10, 2003
ATSB is Too Slow In Approving Bailout, Claims Union Chief
The
head of the nation's largest pilots' union told a Senate
committee Thursday that the airline industry is being slowly
strangled by a combination of crushing taxes and security costs,
plus the refusal of the Air Transportation Stabilization Board
(ATSB) to provide relief mandated by Congress to help airlines in
the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
"For airline workers, the consequences have been devastating.
More than 150,000 airline and aerospace employees are now laid off
and thousands more brace for lay-off as air carriers struggle to
emerge from or avoid bankruptcy and aircraft purchases continue to
sag," said Capt. Duane Woerth, president of the Air Line Pilots
Association, International (ALPA). Woerth was testifying at
hearings by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation, on the state of the airline industry.
Also focused on huge tax burden...
With the industry losing $6.2 billion in 2001, an
estimated $7.4 billion in 2002, and a facing a projected loss of
$3-$4 billion in 2003, Woerth said that Congress needs to correct
the failure of the ATSB to provide mandated loan guarantees to
airlines, ease taxes on airline tickets (which eat up 25.6 percent
of a $200 fare*) and relieve airlines of $4 billion in mandated but
unfunded security costs.
"Our pilots are ready and willing to work together with
management and the government to solve the problems of the airline
industry. This is not a time to impart blame. Labor-bashing, as we
have seen within certain elements of the airline industry, won't
turn this industry around," Woerth said.
*That's not counting all the expenses already built in, due to
taxes already paid -- corporate income taxes, fuel
taxes, payroll taxes, business taxes, airport taxes (often
called, 'fees')...
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