U.S. airlines’ desperate bid for $29 billion in government rescue cash is being frustrated by a lengthening process and demands that companies provide more detailed financial information, Bloomberg News reported. Carriers that filed April 3 for the grants intended to help meet payroll costs expected the checks to begin arriving days ago. Instead, U.S. Treasury officials have asked for another round of data that appears to be more related to a separate loan process instead of the cash grants, further delaying the relief. The federal stimulus bill provided for carriers to receive payments within 10 days after the law was signed March 27. That would have been Monday, though the legislation gave Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin discretion on the timing. The additional demand for information was so detailed it would take more than a week to review all the submissions. “Treasury’s preliminary guidance did not provide applicants with clear direction on a number of critical items,” two U.S. senators from Illinois, where United Airlines Holdings Inc. is based, wrote to Mnuchin in a letter Wednesday. Senator Tammy Duckworth and Senator Dick Durbin, both Democrats, called on the agency “to make sure the confusing application process doesn’t hamper the ability of applicants to receive the funds intended for them.”
