NEW YORK — JetBlue said it’s handing out $21 million worth of bonuses to employees because of the corporate tax cut.
All 21,000 of the airline’s employees will get $1,000 bonuses, except for the CEO and executive vice presidents.
The airline said the bonuses apply to crewmembers employed as of Dec. 31, 2017, and they will be paid out by the end of February.
“We believe these tax changes will be positive for our company, and provide us the opportunity to do good things for our crew members, customers and shareholders,” said CEO Robin Hayes in a statement co-signed by the executive vice presidents.
Republicans in Congress and President Trump approved a new law last month that cuts the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. A spokesman for JetBlue declined to tell CNNMoney how much the company would save from this tax cut.
Other airlines have announced similar bonuses.
American Airlines said earlier this week that it’s paying $1,000 bonuses to each of its 130,000 employees. American wasn’t paying federal income tax anyway because it’s sheltered from past losses resulting from bankruptcies. But CEO Douglas Parker said the airline would still benefit from the new tax rules.
Southwest Airlines said it’s paying $1,000 to every full-time and part-time employee. The airline didn’t say how many workers were covered, but a filing a year ago said there were 53,500 full-time employees.
CNNMoney’s Chris Isidore contributed to this story.
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