By Sam Saeed & Tanya Synder @ Politico.eu, April 8

[....] The U.S. coronavirus relief bill bans companies from giving raises to their top executives, buying back their own stock or paying dividends to shareholders for the five-year duration of the loan plus one year. That's a reaction to reports that U.S. airlines spent 96 percent of their free cash flow over the last decade on share buybacks rather than investing in the business or storing up money for a rainy day.

In Europe, struggling airlines like low-cost carrier Norwegian had to make a financial case to private banks in order to qualify for government aid. In the U.K., the government said airlines need to exhaust all other lines of credit before coming to the government for help — indicating that countries are not immediately rushing to the rescue and will do so with conditions attached.

In other cases like Italy and Belgium, governments are considering the re-nationalization of struggling airlines as their solution to the crisis [....]