Originally Posted by
Dunkin
In the first half of 2025 AAL has reported $2.5 billion in free cash flow. We are in a distanced third place but AAL as a corporation isn’t losing money, far from it. After the aggressive debt pay down is over and the new Citi card deal kicks in the quarterly reports will be much better.
Debt pay down doesn't come out of profit...it's after the fact.
Said another way, if AA only made $1 in profit for the year, it wasn't because they chose to pay off $x billion in debt instead.
Free cash flow does not include depreciation on assets. This is important because if we buy a $100m jet, with a useful lifespan of 30 years, that is $3.3m a year (it's not done over 30 but simple math) we must set aside to buy another. Repeat for 1000 jets. So not including the depreciation hides the true cost to your company.