Today, airline executives are testifying before Congress asking for a bail-out package. While the shutdown last week may have cost them about $4 billion, they're asking for upwards of $20 billion in help. I can understand their asking for relief from damages caused by the government ordered shutdown, but it seems they're asking for far more than those losses.

The airlines themselves only represent a portion of the economic ripple effects caused by last week's shutdown. Imagine you owned a business in an airport, say a restaurant or magazine shop. Your business went to zero when the airports were closed. Other businesses, such as taxi service, were also heavily hit. Even after flights resumed, ridership is way down which further cuts into all of the businesses dependent on air travel like hotels, conferences, and tourism.

Even that doesn't show the limits of the damage from last week's attacks. This morning, Boeing announced they're going to lay off some 30,000 to 40,000 employees due to declining orders for airliners. Several airlines have announced layoffs of up to 20% of their employees. Hotels and restaurants that depend on travellers are also cutting back. This will likely be enough to tip a weakened economy into a full-fledged recession.

General aviation is still prohibited from VFR flight operations. This means the small Fixed Base Operations (FBOs) at most airports have had their revenue stream dry up to nothing. They aren't renting planes, they aren't giving flight instruction, and most people aren't going to pay of maintenance if they can't fly. In many communities, the small general aviation airports are very important to businesses since they may not have any airline service. If the FBOs go away, that will cut into the business's ability to operate. Furthermore, if this continues, you can expect light plane manufacturing to dry up and go away, eliminating thousands of jobs.