Huffington Post: Gulf Airline Subsidies Have No Parallel in U.S.
“No one knows the pain of bankruptcy better than the professional men and women of the U.S. airline industry.
Over the years, as one airline after another reorganized under the weight of heavy debt, it was the employees who suffered most. Pilots, flight attendants, gate agents, baggage handlers and others lost their jobs. Many of those who remained employed suffered pay cuts of more than 40 percent, drastic reductions in benefits and lost pensions. Marriages broke up, homes were lost and lives were ruined.
So it is galling, to say the least, to hear representatives of Emirates Airline, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways assert that bankruptcy restructuring is the equivalent to receiving billions of dollars in subsidies from the governments of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar.
Nothing could be further from the truth.”