Originally Posted by
Squeakygreaser
In the analysis I've seen Southwest has the best cash to cash burn ratio of any carrier, and it's not even close. My question is; was this because management actually planned for periodic downturns or because the 737 max didn't come and all that cash was going to buy those and bring them online?
It's a little bit of everything. We went into the crisis with close to $4B (i believe) cash in the bank in large part due to not taking delivery of any Max and not making those payments. Blessing in disguise! Before the CARES act was finalized we started exercising lines of credit, then took the grant money, and recently issued a stock grant to raise more cash.
Why? Cash is king when everything is on sale!