Originally Posted by
westcoastj
Fair point on the asset base difference. JetBlue does have unencumbered aircraft. But the framing that Frontier “doesn’t have access to liquidity” doesn’t match what just happened this quarter.
Frontier grew total liquidity by $100M while posting a GAAP loss. JetBlue raised $500M in new aircraft secured debt and may pull another $250M from their accordion if fuel volatility persists.
Who’s actually constrained here? One company is internally generating cash, the other is borrowing against assets to maintain their cushion. Both are valid strategies, but they’re not the same thing.
On the revolver point, including undrawn revolver capacity in liquidity disclosures isn’t unique to Frontier. It’s a standard non-GAAP metric used across the industry. Frontier explicitly breaks out the composition in their release. It’s transparent… not being hidden.
The asset light model is also a deliberate choice, not a weakness. Operating leases let Frontier hand 24 A320neos back to AerCap when the math stopped working… try doing that with owned aircraft on your balance sheet. Spirit owned more of their fleet than Frontier and that didn’t save them. Hawaiian owned planes. Asset ownership ≠ financial strength.
The real risk for Frontier isn’t the asset structure… it’s whether fuel stays elevated long enough to grind through the cash they have.
That’s a legitimate concern. But “they don’t have access to liquidity” doesn’t square with $100M of liquidity growth in a quarter where their direct competitor was raising debt to stay even.
It is absolutely a business model and conscious business decision to structure your balance sheet like that, no doubt. I’m not arguing that.
Your original comment was that at least F9 wasn’t borrowing against assets.
But it is exactly what they are doing by sale leasebacks. That’s how they are generating cash. And B6 could do the same, but it’s a decision to “kick the can down the road” so-to-speak. The cost of equipment on leased airplanes can be at much as 2x the cost of having the asset on the books.
I don’t begrudge F9 at all for including the credit facility, I was just pointing out that the revolver isn’t necessarily cash on hand as it look on the balance sheet.
Both of our companies are in interesting times, nonetheless.