The bailout of U.S. airlines under Presidents Donald Trump and Biden was meant to stave off economic calamity and keep the nation’s aviation system alive through the coronavirus pandemic. It included provisions, inspired by investing giant Warren Buffett, that supporters said could give Uncle Sam a piece of the upside when the ailing stocks of airline companies rebounded, the Washington Post reported. Buoyed by federal aid, planes kept flying as air travel plummeted by more than 90 percent. But after handing airlines tens of billions of dollars in grants, the value of stock deals struck on taxpayers’ behalf is not in Buffett’s league. Those stock agreements, similar to options, this week are worth about $260 million, or less than 1 percent of the $37 billion the U.S. government gave 10 major passenger airlines last year to help pay their workers, according to a Washington Post analysis of Treasury Department data. Subsequent agreements taxpayers received as airlines got another $13 billion this year are, as of now, useless, although their value would rise if stock prices climb. There are several ways to calculate what the federal government bought with its billions in pandemic-era aid to airlines. The nation’s aviation system remains intact, supporting jobs in the sector and outside it, while enabling economic growth and freedom of movement across the country. But nearly two years after the pandemic was declared, questions have emerged about what worked well, and what did not, after one of Washington’s most powerful industries was propped up by a vast U.S. bailout. “It wasn’t the most carefully crafted deal out there, but in a time-is-of-the-essence sense, it was the deal that could get done,” said aviation analyst Robert Mann. Without the federal money, “there surely would have been bankruptcies, because there simply would have been no revenue coming in."
