By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department said on Friday it received $556.7 million in proceeds from auctions to sell warrants in 11 major U.S. airlines that the government received in exchange for COVID-19 assistance. .
The revenue is a fraction of the total assistance given to airlines.
Congress approved $54 billion in COVID-19 airline bailouts in 2020 and 2021. Airlines were required to repay $14 billion of that total, and the Treasury received guarantees to buy shares at the stock price at the time of the awards.
The guarantees expire between April 2025 and June 2026.
The Treasury had set revised minimum prices for the warrants totaling $458 million. A Treasury spokesman said the government plans to publicly announce the sale prices of the individual auctions later this summer.
American Airlines (NASDAQ:) received $12.6 billion in government assistance, followed by Delta with $11.9 billion, United Airlines with $10.9 billion and Southwest with $7.2 billion.
Seven other airlines received smaller awards, including $2.2 billion for Alaska Airlines.
Treasury set reserve prices of $221 million for its Delta warrants, $159 million for United, $25 million for American Airlines, $30 million for West Sky (NASDAQ:), $17 million for Alaska Air (NYSE:), $2.7 million for Hawaiian Airlines, $1.9 million for Frontier Group and $1.7 million for Southwest.
The Treasury requested at least $50,000 per airline for its guarantees on Allegiant, Spiritual airlines (NYSE:) and JetBlue. Those warrants and others were priced below the current trading prices of the carriers' shares.
Southwest Airlines (NYSE and Delta Air Lines (NYSE ) declined to comment, while other airlines did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The US government also provided $25 billion in low-cost loans to airlines.
The 2020 pandemic caused a historic collapse in demand for air travel. Passenger air travel in the United States fell 60% in 2020 to its lowest level since 1984, with more than 550 million passengers falling, as airlines cut costs and struggled to survive.
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