Originally Posted by Coronado

The $300 or $360mm they paid Singapore for the 49% interest in Virgin has no effect on that years profits. That investment could be a bad investment or it could be a good investment. Right now it looks like a good investment as at the Investors Day presentation they said they are on track to have their full investment repaid by the end of 2015. While Virgin will be having more flying to the US than they did before, by redeploying aircraft from South Africa and India routes, it also means Delta will be taking over some additional slots at LHR that they otherwise would not have had, while at the same time improving Delta's competitiveness in the corporate market. Please consider the alternative, they could have taken those same $300 or $360mm and decided to buy 2 A380's and putting them to fly between SFO and HND. Whether they buy those aircraft with cash or debt or a combination that action does not affect profitability for that year in which the asset was acquired. However what you do with that asset and how much money it earns over the succeeding years determines your return. In this case if those hypothetical 2 A380's running SFO-HND at probably a 20% load factor or at fares way lower than the cost of the fuel would probably loose $100mm or $200mm a year But from a purely selfish point of view it would enable some senior 744/777 crews to fly some bigger metal.