During earlier family get-togethers, we all remember being sentenced to the “little peoples’ table.” We jealously eyed the “big peoples’ table,” knowing that they always seemed to have more fun, didn’t have to eat all their vegetables, and were served larger desserts.
That same divide continues today as the congressional negotiators and the folks at our nations’ “big peoples’ table” decide which plates will get the prime fixings and rich, luscious desserts.
People approach the security screening area inside the Portland International Jetport. (Gregory Rec file photo/Press Herald)
It’s true that for the first time during a national financial crisis, thanks to Sens. Collins and Shaheen, that those of us at the “kids’ table” were finally treated with respect and dignity. But, their Payroll, Protection Program with its small business lifeline loans and emphasis on keeping workers on the payroll has reached its upper funding cap, 345 million dollars in just 14 days.
Nationally, 1,637,000 small businesses had their applications approved. Millions of desperate business applicants are now frozen in suspended animation until Congress passes additional funding for this successful program.
Sadly though, it appears that Washington is slipping back into the same old partisan bickering, posturing and stalemate. We’re in an emergency crisis with 22 million now unemployed, 89,500 here in Maine, and still climbing, while the Congress remains back home, sheltering in place.
Despite the absence of our Congress, the D.C. lobbyists, platters in hand, were negotiating with our government at the “big peoples’ table.” What would be the size of their federal bailout and would there be any strings attached to the funds?
Given the importance of the air passenger sector to our American economy, there’s been no question about our domestic airline companies receiving aid from the recently passed CARES Act. During the past five weeks, the airline passenger count has dropped by 90 to 95 percent during what is normally one of the busiest flying seasons. Hundreds of flights have been canceled and many cities dropped from service.
Flight crews — pilots and attendants, counter staff, baggage handlers, aircraft cleaning crews and mechanics have been furloughed. Deserted airport terminals with their mostly shuttered restaurants and stores now remind one of abandoned western ghost towns.
Those ripple effects have grown to include the workers at those restaurants and stores, their vendors, taxi drivers, airport shuttle buses, airport security officers, car rental companies, aviation fuel suppliers, and the once convenient airport hotels. Hundreds of TSA agents have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.
Justifiably, the domestic airline companies have been approved for $50 billion in a combination of loans and grants. Initial reports indicate the airline industry’s displeasure that 75 percent of the allotted funds would have to be used to maintain paychecks for their furloughed employees until Sept. 30. Their response has been a request to cut flights and service to a number of cities. Are you surprised?
These are the companies, after a major consolidation of carriers which reduced competition, who kept cramming ever more seats into their planes, dramatically reducing the width of the seats and leg space. Claustrophobic? After a February flight, 13 flying hours in each direction, my 6-foot-4-inch frame would rather be hog-tied and thrown into a corner for 48 hours rather than repeating that ordeal again.
Just last year, these airline companies were bragging about the extra billions of revenue brought in by their creative but awful add-on fees– $50 to $75 baggage fees, steep rebooking fees, bulkhead and exit-row seat fees, pillow and blanket fees, and fuel-surcharge fees that never go down. They’ve been so aggressive in their search for more fee revenues, about the only other possible options are for them are to put a fee on the air circulating in the cabin and for the use of the in-flight toilets.
Remember that these were the companies who inflicted comfort companions on the flying public. Not only were you elbow-to-elbow with seatmates, you now were forced to share the cabin space with pet pigs, goats, snakes, lizards, cats, rabbits, pit bulls, miniature ponies and spitting llamas, all I’m sure, accompanied by more fellow travelers — fleas.
The airline companies may think one day soon we’ll return to the old normal, the way things were before COVID-19. Many Americans will not want to return to the same old pack’em-in-like-sardines plane loads again. They will reject 17-inch wide seats and particle laden, recycled air.
Americans, after spending months in self-isolation at home, practicing 6 feet or more of social distancing, and wearing protective face masks are not going to board pre-COVID-19 configured aircraft. Whether it’s the movies, dining, travel, or work, they’ll always be asking themselves three key questions:
1.) What will be my ‘personal space’?
2.) What kind of air will I be breathing?
3.) What risk of contagion will I be taking?
The government negotiators lost the opportunity at the “big peoples’ table to look more to the future of post-virus air travel than just restoring the past. The airline executives can now prevent their companies from becoming the travel dinosaurs of the future, if they act.
Most of their fleets are now grounded, so they can start removing some of the seats they’ve shoe-horned into them, so they can create more personal space for their new flyers. Turn the design engineers loose so they can implement new healthier cabin air systems. Immediately drop those awful fees and establish a real flyers’ bill of rights for each company.
If they start, the airline companies might survive, become a part of the new normal, and become prosperous again. The old, pre-virus business plan is dead, killed by COVID-19.
Tom Murphy is a former history teacher and state representative. He is a Kennebunk Landing resident and can be reached at tsmurphy@myfairpoint.net.
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