The evidence is anecdotal, but psychologists and flight attendants say they are seeing and hearing increased worries about flying.

American Airlines and United Airlines say they will begin to furlough 32,000 employees after lawmakers and the White House failed to agree on a broad pandemic relief package that includes more federal aid for airlines. She said a bailout that keeps airline workers employed would be cheaper for the government than putting them on the unemployment line during a pandemic. Beyond American and United, smaller airlines have sent layoff warnings to several thousand employees. Late Tuesday, the Treasury Department said it completed loans to seven major airlines: American, United, Alaska, JetBlue, Frontier, Hawaiian and SkyWest. American now expects to borrow $5.5 billion from the Treasury, and United can get $5.17 billion.

The airlines and their unions are putting pressure on Congress and the White House to approve more taxpayer help for their industry. However, the fate of the proposal is uncertain because negotiations between the White House and congressional Democrats over a larger virus-relief package have stalled. Meadows said Trump has spoken with people at American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines. Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said Meadows’ remarks indicate that the lobbying by airline unions is working. When Washington first approved airline aid, it was designed to help the carriers survive until air travel and ticket sales improved.

House backers of the aid provision released a letter Monday in which 195 Democrats and 28 Republicans endorsed further payroll aid to the airline industry. Without further relief from Congress, mass layoffs among airline industry workers are inevitable and their magnitude will eclipse those of any furloughs the industry has ever seen, House Transportation Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio and other lawmakers wrote in the letter to House and Senate leaders. Thirteen airline unions endorsed the House letter. Airlines that took the money agreed not to furlough workers or cut their pay rates or benefits. The nations four biggest airlines lost a combined $10 billion from April through June.