Sounding Off: Travel bailouts are not simple tasks to manage

Each Friday, PhocusWire dissects and debates an industry trend or new development covered on our site that week.

The U.S. government followed it counterparts in other nations around the world this week with a state aid package to help people affected by the outbreak of the coronavirus.

These are necessary and much-needed programs of assistance as millions of people discover how hard it is to pay for things without a job or the same for businesses without any customers.

Other elements of state aid are far more difficult to decipher and for people to agree on.

Already, some airlines in the U.K. have have found the door slammed fairly hard in their faces by the government, when the idea that they might be bailed out was first raised.

Aviation association IATA has pleaded with regional organizations and the G20 leaders directly to help the sector out.

Each government and regional or global group will no doubt have its own set of criteria as it weighs up whether support the ailing aviation industry out.

Some airlines will survive (and thrive again), some will not. That's the harsh reality of where the industry finds itself in just three months into this crisis.

Where the issue gets very complicated comes in the idea that the industry is so vast and deep that the supply and support chain that helps keep airlines flying and hotels remain open should also be assisted financially.

The EU Travel Tech lobbying group says every business that works behind the scenes is also being impacted by the sudden slump in travel volumes and, in not so many words, if they fail then the consumer-facing that they support will face additional challenges.

It's a compelling argument - certainly to those in the wider ecosystem of support services (distribution, marketing, IT, etc.).

Such a move, however, would obviously not come cheap and it seems more likely that any form of state aid will go, instead, only to propping up the travel-facing operations that inspire people to travel or are functional elements of a trip (transportation).

It would be fair to say that if a brand such as Booking Holdings (one of EU Travel Tech's members), with its high market cap and large revenues, was to receive any form of bailout that it would be a hugely controversial move.