The U.S. Department of the Treasury has approved $5.8 billion from the Payroll Support Program created through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security — or CARES — Act for American Airlines. More than 5,000 people work in Tulsa at American’s largest maintenance base. American Airlines will get a grant for $4.1 billion and a low-interest loan of $1.7 billion. American Airlines is expected to ask the government for another loan of about $4.75 billion.

American Airlines announced a few months ago that they were going to spend $550 million to revamp the maintenance base in Tulsa and those plans are still in place. Across America, airline passenger traffic has fallen 95% due to the Chinese coronavirus.