US airlines go through Chapter 11 - bankruptcy/creditor protection - while some of the planes keep flying. During the last decade, only two airlines though emerged from the process in some OK shape or form:
Through the 90s and 00s, Delta, United and AA emerged OK after filing for Chapter 11:
The UK Scheme of Arrangement under the English law allows for similar cases, at least on paper it can work, to make sure operations continue as normal.
However, currently there is almost no business as people aren’t flying, so they can’t segregate the day-to-day ops from the balance sheet reorganisation.
So, when you’re stuck with a choice between investing/building and buying ventilators, supporting millions of people, and bailing out Virgin Atlantic which employs 10,000s, what do you do before May 2020?
In addition to airline workers, there’re already a bunch of coders getting laid off right now, not to mention blue collar workers.
(Source - List of airline bankruptcies in the United States - Wikipedia)