It's probably much more expensive. The difference is between a loan which will likely be paid back versus paying the salaries of thousands of people for who knows how long.

Also, good luck taking a plane in the few months following the crisis. Creating back airlines from the ground up is far from instant, even if you have the planes and crews just laying around.

The salaries will end up back in the economy, low paid workers are unlikely to hoard their bailouts because they need food/shelter/etc. It’s also likely that airlines in chapter 11 would be acquired/restructured as a unit, not necessarily sold for parts.