I wonder if this perhaps puts the financing in a different light:

American Air sees Q3 traffic, revenue drop - Yahoo! Finance

I was struck by this:

"...American said its expects to end the third quarter with a cash balance of least $3.7 billion, including the $1.2 billion in cash related to financing it announced Thursday..."

That would suggest "only" 2.5 billion without the 1.2 billion in additonal cash. That would be a relatively low number for an operation of their size. It makes you wonder if the additional funding is for offense, or defense. Is the gorilla awakening, or perhaps trying to cover up a wound?

I'm witholding judgment. For starters, I don't have the numbers to understand whether the final cash on hand excludes some expected tarnsaction (i.e. JAL), which would make cash on hand much higher otherwise. Just as DAL released better yield and revenue expectations for the second half, then said cash on hand would actually be 400 million lower (at 4.6 billion) at the end of the year vs. end of the September quarter. Maybe that inlcudes the addition of 500 in new debt, minus some unspecified transaction (i.e. JAL) also...

So maybe Delta released said positive numbers to get attractive terms on the additional debt, and maybe AMR is releasing poorer numbers once it received additional financing, to make it more difficult in the short-term for other airlines to borrow?