Original article (November 15, 2020)

After a long, drawn out and intense election week, Joe Biden is now the president-elect of the United States. What does this mean for the aviation industry?

When nations began locking down due to COVID-19 in March 2020, airlines were hit especially hard by the resulting economic downturn and sharp drop in travel demand. Airlines began to quickly burn cash as their operating costs far exceeded revenue. On March 27, 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) was passed in an attempt to stabilize the economy and prevent job losses, among other causes.

The law allocated up to $25B for passenger airlines, $4B for cargo airlines, and $3B for contractors; the money was to be used to ensure that employees could keep their jobs and benefits. One of the conditions of the bailout was that companies "refrain from conducting involuntary furloughs or reducing pay rates and benefits until September 30, 2020" (§ 4114).

The three major American legacy airlines - American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines - received $5.98B, $5.6B, and $5.1B respectively. Nevertheless, as the Payroll Support Program period ended, American and United collectively furloughed over 32,000 employees on October 1, 2020. This doesn't even include other mainline airlines, regional airlines, or low cost carriers.

Joseph R. Biden is now the 46th president-elect of the United States. Photo by David Lienemann; public domain.

A Delta Boeing 717 at Chicago O'Hare Airport. Photo by Miguel Ángel Sanz on Unsplash.

Without pointing fingers about why airlines lacked money to support their employees in a notoriously cyclical industry, it’s clear that American families are suffering. Joe Biden has committed to extending pandemic unemployment benefits, and helping currently employed Americans remain at work. For now, we need congress to put political differences aside and pass a second stimulus bill to help those being hit hardest by COVID-19 related economic difficulties.

The airline industry is one of the few remaining heavily unionized industries. Negotiations between airline employee unions and airline executives have allowed some airlines to avoid furloughs completely. Biden supports "strengthening public and private sector unions and helping all workers bargain successfully for what they deserve".

However, we should all be aware that these are all band-aid solutions that don’t fix the root cause of our problems. Until the COVID-19 pandemic is under control (which it certainly isn’t), our economic struggles will continue. Travel demand won’t come back for a while, so airlines are now tasked with trying to convince their customers that flying is safe.

One of the major talking points during this election season was the environment and clean energy. It’s no secret that air travel is a major source of pollution. In fact, aviation itself accounts for 2.4% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. Aside from CO₂ emissions, jet engines produce harmful combustion byproducts, as well as water vapor which is also a greenhouse gas that contributes heavily to global warming.

No commercial aircraft type currently runs fully on alternative energy, and it will take a long time to get to that point. One notable example of clean energy in aviation is United Airlines’ partnership with LAX airport in using biofuels on commercial flights. This is a very specific case, and most aircraft still run on fuels derived from crude oil.

During the second presidential debate on October 22, 2020, Joe Biden said that he wanted to "transition from the oil industry". While investing in sustainable and clean energy sources is paramount to mitigating effects from the ongoing global climate crisis, we must acknowledge that the aviation industry depends heavily on the oil industry. Although a blatant ban on fossil fuels is near impossible, consider the impact it will have on the aviation industry in particular.

A United Airlines 737-800 at McCarran International Airport in Eco-Skies livery. Photo by Tomas Del Coro, CC BY-SA 2.0