Marty Walsh: “Mr. Chairman, before my colleagues jump again to react to the airline industry, I would caution that we think about the…”

“Mr. Chairman, before my colleagues jump again to react to the airline industry, I would caution that we think about the way the airline industry responded to our last legislative action. Within hours, Mr. Chairman, within hours of the passage of that airline bailout, USAirways fired hundreds and hundreds of its employees. Not only did they do that, they fired and closed reservation centers of their most senior, most experienced reservationists because they could save more money that way. And then they did not give them the opportunity to be rehired at other locations. They went out and the reservation centers that needed additional employees, they hired people 'off the street,' because they could hire them at a lower wage. This is the airline that charges customers seven times what other airlines serving the same two cities charge. This is the same airline that has average employee costs of $87,000. This is the same airline that provides service in 37-seat prop jets when they could go out and purchase new regional jets that would provide dramatically better service, and they are asking people to fly in those 30- and 40-year-old planes because their contract with their pilots will not allow them to buy new regional jets. This is the same airline that came back to us and said we need your help on this bill, and they still have not got their loans filed.”