^^^^THAT^^^^

And companies deep in debt still need to make the debt service on their bonds and even THAT just means they are treading water. Ultimately you must make enough to pay off the principle of those bonds before the underlying value of the equity disappears entirely. So how long will it take an airline to come up with $40 Billion in profit? A decade, if all goes well? What sort of profits were even the legacies making before COVID?