They gave the money in a previous reporting period, so yes the cash is gone. Its $300M+ that JB once had that they don’t have any more. But yes, they don’t “owe anyone” that cash right now.

If you buy $1B planes for cash you reduce cash by $1B and then you increase Aircraft by $1B. Then you depreciate aircraft, so that you match roughly (under GAAP rules). If you end up selling the planes for less than you owe on them, you actually take a LOSS, even though you didn’t lose cash. You lost the cash up front. Its gone already.

JetBlue buying Frontier?
 

Yes but JB isn’t losing money in day to day operations. There is a huge difference and distinction there.

The original post that spurred all this made it sound like JB was losing money on the operation. It isn’t.

That’s precisely why I used a personal tax 2016 capital loss as an example. The loss occurred in 2016, but was a carryover for 2017 tax purposes. One may have made capital gains in 2017, but a 2016 carried loss can be used in 2017 to offset the gain. It’s not the same as an impairment, but it’s the same principle. We didn’t lose money in Q2. We reported a loss, but it’s not a loss from Q2.

In this case, it’s a long term high value asset with a previously used depreciation schedule, and (in our case) all of a sudden the length of ownership changes, the future cash flow and value of the asset, along with its depreciation schedule, also changes, leading to an impairment being required. That doesn’t mean we lost money on the asset over its lifetime, or this quarter, just that the future value of the owned 190s and its depreciation changed with our reduced ownership timeframe such that an impairment was required to be reported. We didn’t lose $319m. It’s just a difference from previously used numbers based on a previously used ownership length/depreciation schedule/future value numbers. It’s an accounting number. Not a loss in this quarter.

Wait but our airline is about to die......
Funny thing the one thing we are good at is moving money around. We just announced the return of 60 of our planes that was going to hit us somewhere.

From an investment standpoint jetBlue is a healthy company with a loyal customer base and has some great hub locations. Honestly anyone there now I would not worry one bit. They have been busy paying down debt like their money is on fire. I'm at AA and quite frankly I feel your company will continue to make inroads on our business and markets. If we added free WiFi and had more of a brand rather than this generic "airline" brand we're going for you might be in trouble but right now the biggest issue you guys have is operational ones where the company just can't seem to figure out how to run during IROPS.

F9 guy here, I don't know what the culture is like there other than what I've read on here but if there were to be a merger between the 2 of us it would be now. F9 is a dumpster fire, morale is at an all time low, vacations canceled, probationary pilots fired, more canceled flights than I've seen in my entire time working here. With that being said and the recent ALPA lawsuit, along with negotiations with pilots and FAs...I can see the headache being too big and settling for maybe less than they wanted. The other side to that is that Frankes ego is so big, I fear he may in fact let this place burn down before he gives in. What do I know though....

If frontier is not saved by JetBlue or other airline, then yes frontier will be history. The alpa lawsuit was a bad move. Now it will take years to resolve the contract because a judge will now be in charge.

What was the ALPA lawsuit

F9 mgmt negotiating in bad faith.

Forgive me but what would be the benefit of Jetblue buying Frontier? I can see the benefit or AK or HAL from a growth, strength or network but I'm confused about the F9 assertion.