The U.S. Export-Import Bank - Funds Foreign Corporations
Donald Lee Moak, President Air Line Pilots Association
Most of us have never heard of the United States Export-Import Bank. While we have pleasantly gone through life without realizing that such an organization exists within our government, the time has come to educate ourselves on what this arm of our government is doing and how its actions are having a profound, negative impact on our careers. I write today to call you to action.
The U.S. Export-Import Bank, made possible by an Act of Congress and funded with taxpayer money, provides loans, loan guarantees and insurance commitments to foreign corporations.
Recently, the Bank has guaranteed $3.4 billion in loans to Air India, a financially shaky, state-owned airline that competes with U.S. carriers in a variety of markets. The money is to be used to buy 30 wide-body aircraft at below market financing. The new aircraft will almost certainly be used to compete on even more routes against U.S. airlines, further endangering our flights, our jobs, and our careers
We must respond....
The Air India deal is just the latest and most egregious loan financing foreign airlines. In the past four years, 60% of the Bank’s loan portfolio, an incredible $25 billion, has been to such airlines. That financing allows our competitors to buy new aircraft at below-market rates unavailable to our domestic carriers, flooding the skies with new aircraft and placing our airlines at a marked disadvantage in the international market.
Air India now flies a non-stop route from New York to Mumbai. In 2008, a U.S. airline canceled their flights on that route and cited unfair market conditions as the reason. 64 ALPA member jobs (32 captains and 32 first officers) were lost because Air India, backed by our taxpayer funds and the taxpayers of India, has been able to sell seats below cost. In fact, subsidies like this funded by the U.S. government have resulted in an estimated 7,500 lost jobs at U.S. airlines because of unfair competition on international routes.
We cannot continue to allow our government to finance foreign carrier service. It is detrimental to our industry and our careers. We must demand that Congress take action against the Export-Import Bank now. Will you join me in standing up to this problem and showing Congress that we will not sit idle as our jobs our outsourced by supporting ALPA-PAC today?
Sincerely,
Donald Lee Moak
President, Air Line Pilots Association