I guess the only positive note is that DAL doesn't seem to be any better run financially than we are. Operationally they are kicking arse.

Their biggest FOPA is their refinery. Needed lots of CAPEX every year, 100 mil or so. They didn't do their due diligence when they bought the place. It is an environmental disaster that they are on the hook to cleanup. They also don't blend ethanol with the gasoline they produce, so they are spending "millions" buying ethanol credits. It didn't mention how many millions, just "millions". They decided to use fracked oil, because it was cheap. But they had to pay 15 dollars a barrel to transport it by rail. Then they ran out of railcars because a bunch got de-qualed after the fire in Quebec. So they didn't have enough oil. So they bought an old tanker to ship it by sea from IAH to EWR. The tanker had problems so they just ordered a new-build tanker.

Shipping by sea is much cheaper, right? Well, not so much. Because of an old law, I think it is called the Jones Act but I cannot recall. Any ship operating between US ports has to be built in a US shipyard, and staffed by US crews. I have heard shipping like this is 3-4 times the cost of a Panama flagged, Korean built, Philippino staffed super tanker.

Turns out DAL may not be that well managed after all. At least financially.