[neverartful]

My cynical take is that it's a let's buy off these folks before they sue us.

[rlpb]

My more optimistic take is that if they take years to resolve claims, then passengers could (should be able to?) rightfully claim more damages for the hardship in those delays. It saves them money overall by providing compensation early without prejudicing future claims. And that's of benefit to those impacted, too.

[freedomben]

Quite possibly. It should be pretty easy to tell though based on whether it includes an NDA, non disparagement, and/or no sue agreement.

Based on the article, there aren't any of those, so I think they're doing a good thing here