Pandemic Could Wipe out Airline Jobs
SCIUTTO: Welcome back. It is a crucial day for stimulus talks. It means that it's a crucial day for Americans who might be losing their jobs. Speaker Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin are still trying to cut a deal. Airlines in particular, they're bracing because tens of thousands of workers face furlough tomorrow without action. Joining us now is the CEO of American Airlines, Doug Parker, among the airlines that plans to let go thousands of people tomorrow. Mr. Parker, thanks so much for taking the time this morning.</s>DOUG PARKER, CEO, AMERICAN AIRLINES: Thank you for having me.</s>SCIUTTO: So Steve Mnuchin just said moments ago that he and Speaker Pelosi are meeting again. They're going to take one more serious try, in his words, that he's hopeful for a deal and that's going to speak to airline executives, yourself included, about the possibility of postponing those scheduled furloughs tomorrow. Are you willing to postpone those furloughs?</s>PARKER: Well, we're happy to hear that they're making progress. That's by far the preferred path for all of us. The CARES -- what's going on here is that the CARES Act had in it a payroll support program to keep critical infrastructure in place, keeps we airlines employs all of our -- all of our team, even though there's not enough work for them right now. But we will -- so we're here to provide the necessary infrastructure as the economy rebounds to be sure we have the infrastructure in place. But, anyway, that does expire tomorrow. There's huge bipartisan support for extending it. What we need, though, is a vehicle. So, yes, it's encouraging to hear that they are making progress. Obviously we'll be interested in what the secretary has to say and hopefully there's a clear and --</s>SCIUTTO: If he asked you --</s>PARKER: Yes?</s>SCIUTTO: If he asks you to postpone, he says, listen, we don't have a deal yet, we're getting close. If he asks you to postpone, will you postpone those furloughs? Thousands of American Airlines employees, I imagine, they're listening.</s>PARKER: Oh, absolutely. Look, the last thing we want to do is furlough employees. That's why we've been fighting so hard for them to come to an agreement.</s>SCIUTTO: OK.</s>PARKER: So, at any rate, hard for me to tell you until we hear -- until we know where they are. But, certainly, if there is a, you know, a clear and concrete path that says, you know, we're not quite done yet, but we will be done soon, of course. If it's -- if it's -- you know, we just were -- we need, you know, much more time to work and unclear as to whether that will be the -- whether we can get something done or not, that's going to be -- that's obviously going to be much harder.</s>SCIUTTO: OK.</s>PARKER: So it's hard for me to say until we hear more, but really encouraged by the fact that it sounds like they're making real progress. That is absolutely the right path for airlines and I think actually for our country.</s>SCIUTTO: OK, and I imagine a lot of your employees think that's good news as well. I do want to note that American Airlines finalized a $5.5 billion loan agreement with the government just a couple of weeks ago. This in addition to $4.7 billion in July. Why can't you use that money to stave off these layoffs, these furloughs?</s>PARKER: Well, again, that's -- that's the first -- that was -- those -- what just happened, the $5.5 billion is -- is indeed from CARES one. CARES one had $50 billion for airlines, $25 billion in loans. That's what that was, just not</s>SCIUTTO: OK. The Air Transportation Action Group, it's estimating that air travel will not return to its pre-pandemic levels until the year 2024. I just wonder, are you living in effect from paycheck to paycheck here, right, in terms of government support, or will you need, you and other airlines need to restructure fundamentally, right? I mean that the -- is the reality that these jobs aren't coming back right away because the passengers aren't coming back.</s>PARKER: Yes. Well, again, it's -- we don't expect certainly, you know, six months from now, demand will return to where it was pre-pandemic. But what we do know is demand is coming back gradually. What we're dealing with six months from now certainly one would expect that there were -- you know, things like quarantines and, you know, people working from home will be lessened.</s>SCIUTTO: Yes.</s>PARKER: And we don't need full recovery of demand to 100 percent of what it used to be. I mean we -- we need, you know, in recessions you don't see airlines ground aircraft like we're doing today. It -- you know, it -- so if indeed what I anticipate will happen, which is we -- we continue to see gradual improvement over the next six months to where demand is much closer, you know, it doesn't need to be -- it doesn't need to be where we're all the way recovered by any means but say 80 percent of what it used to be, then we will -- we would -- we would be flying all of our airplanes, we would need to employ the people that we still have employed and this would be sufficient. So, yes, I -- I happen to believe that this six-month extension will be sufficient for us to, by that point, keep -- to keep everyone employed, to meet demand as it comes back, keep that infrastructure in place and not need to do this again in the future.</s>SCIUTTO: OK. A safety question, if I can ask you. The -- I've flown, not often, but I've flown a couple of times. I've been impressed with measures being taken, mask wearing, et cetera. I imagine you're watching the data very closely. Have you seen any data of coronavirus spreading on your flights because, for instance, your airline no longer blocking middle seats. Watching the data, have you seen anything to concern you yet?</s>PARKER: Oh, absolutely not. And to the contrary, I've seen really encouraging data. You know, we have -- we've seen nothing, nor have we heard from CDC, any cases of the virus being spread on an aircraft. And probably the best -- the best indication I can give you is we obviously track our crews. You know, pilots and flight attendants who fly three times a day, three days a week -- three or four days a week. And the Covid rates amongst our flight attendants and pilots is well below the national average and lower than the -- for our -- for airline employees that aren't flying airplanes. But the aircraft, you know, the air is -- the air is recirculating every two to three minutes. It goes through HEPA air filters. People are wearing masks. It's an incredibly safe environment in that regard because of all those measures.</s>SCIUTTO: Yes.</s>PARKER: And we see that -- we see that again in the Covid rates for our flight attendants as well.</s>SCIUTTO: There's notable. I had not heard that. Lower Covid rates for staff than for the national average. Doug Parker, listen, we know you've got a lot of tough times ahead and for the people who work for American Airlines, we wish you and we wish them the best of luck.</s>PARKER: Thank you. We all appreciate it. I know they do. Thanks, Jim.</s>SCIUTTO: We'll be right back.