Sounds like a routine transaction that most businesses would want to make under the circumstances: Debt comes due, debt rolled over into new loans. The actual amounts, credit ratings & interest rates would have been interesting, but the article was pretty superficial & didn't dig into that.
More interesting is what kind of investor would take a chance on a company that reported a quarter-billion-dollar loss ($257M) 2nd quarter and expects to see its cash balance shrink by another $800M by the end of the year?
The collateral will be "Delta's Pacific route authorities, slots and gate leaseholds". If Delta falters & the upcoming open-skies agreement with Japan becomes a reality, there will be supply of slots & gates on the market.