Attempts to get airline aid may fall short By Dan Reed, USA TODAY Hundreds of airline employees are expected to fan out across Capitol Hill on Tuesday and Wednesday in an industry-orchestrated effort to win at least $9 billion in immediate federal aid that some carriers may need to survive. But the high-profile campaign may not yield much. Expressions of understanding and concern are abundant. However, neither Congress nor the Bush administration have settled on a specific plan that would help carriers already in bankruptcy court avoid liquidation, or help those teetering on the brink of insolvency avoid having to file Chapter 11. The White House said Monday that no aid package would be included in the $80 billion supplemental budget the president will send to Capitol Hill to pay for the war in Iraq and its aftermath. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said any airli ne aid should be considered "separate and apart" from the supplemental request. Meanwhile, senior staff members for the Senate and House committees that deal with most aviation policy issues also indicated Monday that passing an effective and timely airline financial aid package is a long shot, at best. Senate Aviation subcommittee Chairman Trent Lott, R-Miss., is sympathetic to airline requests for relief from security-related costs imposed by government since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But many of the industry's problems began well before then, he says. Duane Woerth, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, says airlines and their workers are asking for help only with financial problems tied directly to terrorism, war and national security issues, not those related to business mistakes or the soft economy. "If a hurricane had ripped through Florida, FEMA would be coming up with $5 billion in aid almost overnight because the government would realize that there's no way the businesses and economy in that area could be prepared for or sustain that kind of unexpected hit," Woerth says. Airline labor is more than doing its part to help the airlines through their worst financial crisis by taking pay and benefits cuts, he says. The USA's nine largest airlines have lost $18 billion the past two years. The war is expected to push this year's losses to almost $11 billion. In other airline developments Monday: Delta followed the lead of most other big carriers by trimming its April capacity 12%, mostly in international markets. Airline stocks tumbled Monday on investors' worries that war with Iraq will be protracted. The stocks of Continental, Delta, Northwest and AMR, parent of American Airlines, lost 11.3% to 17.2% of their value Monday. Contributing: Kathy Kiely and Richard Benedetto *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.thehummingbirdonline.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************