From what I've read, the airline bailout package has two parts. The first part is about $5 billion to help compensate the airlines for losses caused by the government when the airlines where ordered to shut down on Sept 11th and not allowed to resume flights for about a week. I can at least sympathize with that part.

The other part of the package is roughly $10 billion in loan guarantees. This isn't a direct gift like the other part of the package. The legislation apparently calls for the airlines who receive the guarantees to give some form of equity value to the government in return. That's a whole different can of worms.