U.S. airlines want a $50B bailout. They spent $45B buying back their stock

Re:U.S. airlines want a $50B bailout. They spent $45B buying... by tynpeddler on Tuesday April 07, 2020 @12:55PM (#22804973)

In addition to all the other issues that people have brought up, the most important thing to remember is that the airline business is extremely cyclical. They know that there are always bad times around the bend. Their total lack of preparation is what's so galling. The management at these companies is simply unfit when they so routinely ignore the history of their own industry.

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Re:U.S. airlines want a $50B bailout. They spent $45B buying... by AnimalMuppet on Tuesday April 07, 2020 @01:21PM (#22805289)

I seem to recall that total profits for the (US) airline industry from 1960 to 2010 was $0 (dates may be incorrect, but the general timeframes are correct). It's all just bankruptcy, merger, restructuring, and repeat.

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Re:U.S. airlines want a $50B bailout. They spent $45B buying... by nieve on Tuesday April 07, 2020 @02:04PM (#22805739)

You should always be suspicious of claims by or about a company that they made no profit when they were able to throw billions at propping up their stock price. If it's true it's financial malpractice, but it's no more believable than the shenanigans of highly profitable megacorporations that somehow end up paying no federal taxes.

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Re:U.S. airlines want a $50B bailout. They spent $45B buying... by AnimalMuppet on Tuesday April 07, 2020 @02:12PM (#22805820)

What I said was that total profits for 50 or 60 years, for all airline companies put together, were $0. But any one company, for a period of several years, certainly could be doing well enough to reasonably buy back stock. It doesn't have to be financial malpractice. (It may be, but my statement doesn't mean that it is.)

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