It's not just for the benefit of the shareholders though. If it were I'd agree with you - but bailing out these companies is for the benefit of consumers, who w

It's not just for the benefit of the shareholders though. If it were I'd agree with you - but bailing out these companies is for the benefit of consumers, who would otherwise be without an airline industry for a while. We should try to get the shareholders to pay for as much of it as possible though, whilst allowing the industry to stay solvent. This seems like some of the intention of making bailouts in the form of low-to-zero-interest loans (not sure if that's the form the bailout ended up taking).