Lawmakers are looking for answers from all of the big airline executives about how all the federal COVID-19 stimulus money was spent.
Few will argue the airline industry was hit hard by the pandemic with many companies flying nearly-empty planes for months.
Taxpayers spent billions of dollars to keep the planes in the air and employees on the payroll with the Payroll Protection Program. But did that somehow contribute to those massive airport delays a couple months ago?
A US Senate Committee wants to know whether the airlines used some of that money to thin their ranks through voluntary buyouts, then were caught flat-footed by a lack of personnel.
The airlines blamed the massive delays on severe weather when staff that were expected in one city to man flights were stuck in other cities.
But pilots and flight attendants say a contributing factor was there were not enough people to cover the schedule when the weather hit.
The CEOs of American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United and Delta are among those expected to testify.
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