Why don't they go away?

[Bael]

Another reason the government props up the Major Airlines, if it weren't for the major airlines the USPS would have a very hard time competing with UPS/DHS/FedEx. An absurd amount of cargo on a passenger flight is postage and freight. So in a way, they're protecting their own investment in these companies. And yeah, it sucks for the babies, but you gotta find your little niche when you're up against giants like that. It happens all the time in other industries.

[Aristotle]

One of the main reasons airlines get propped up is the same reason they are in such financial distress all the time:

UNIONS

Unions absolutely crippled the airline industry. Pilots, Flight attendants, Baggage Handlers, and every other group of employees each have their own union. These unions prevent the airlines from operating like a normal business, and thus, airlines are horribly inefficient and prone to repeated failure.

This same union power is used to lobby congress for help any time an airline is about to go Tango Uniform. If the airline actually closed up shop, it would probably get replaced by a non-union airline. That just won't do!

Unions are a once necessary evil that are now nothing but a leech and a drain on our economy. The internet and the media provide a more effective control on abuse than unions do in modern times. Unions do nothing but cripple business (and in turn, our economy) while at the same time sucking the blood from the worker via dues (which are used, among other things, for political contributions to candidates and causes the workers may not even support).

[Isaviel]

Here is an interesting article on Southwest Airlines by Forbes.

[Lokrian]

Originally posted by Isaviel
Here is an interesting article on Southwest Airlines by Forbes.

Read that article, note where it talks about hours flown, then read this:

http://www.alpa.org/?tabid=180

Forbes, all by itself, is not going to give you labor's side ever.

[Gromgor]

Um. Ok.So you're displeased with the current financial situations in the US. That's not really the topic. It's a side tangent. Everybody back where they belong. Discussing the Airlines.

[Lokrian]

Originally posted by Gromgor
Um. Ok.So you're displeased with the current financial situations in the US. That's not really the topic. It's a side tangent. Everybody back where they belong. Discussing the Airlines.

Well, follow along. Ari thinks the airlines are being driven into the dirt by the unions. Southwest pilots and so forth have their own union which negotiates competitive contracts yet allows the airline to still function. There may be something to the idea that the larger unions for the larger airlines are negotiating contracts that are killing those airlines, I don't know. Point is, in his opinion the airlines are being crushed by unions in general, whereas I believe it is more likely management trouble. I think the unions negotiate their contracts based on what they know about how much money is coming in, and the airlines themselves squander it by spending too much on upper level management perks, overall bad organizational decisions and so forth.

One thing's for sure. If they were allowed to go under and not come back, and their assets sold off to profitable airlines, whether it is the unions or managements fault, both would be in the drink as their company would be gone, mooting the argument.

[Aristotle]

Gromgor, your question about airlines has been answered by multiple people. If you don't like related side-tangents, then don't participate. Quoting someone's entire post just to say it isn't talking about airlines is just spam.

Airlines are more important to the country as a whole than most small businesses. That is just a fact. The government coddles them because the economic impact of not doing so would be enormously negative. If Mom-and-Pop's neighborhood shop goes tits up, the overall effect on the economy is negligible. That doesn't mean there is no effect, there just is not a big enough effect for it to require government assistance.

It is an economic disaster for even a single airlines to cancel flights for a single day. Too many businesses depend on their employees being able to travel via air or for tourists to travel to their location via air.

That along with the power of unions (who don't want a union airlines replaced by a non-union one) means it is almost impossible for an airlines to actually close up shop.

That said, it is still important to note that almost any business can file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This is known as "Corporate Reorganization." Chapter 11 gives a business more time to pay its debts while continuing to operate (and bring in money). Many businesses, even small ones, make use of Chapter 11.