You will hardly ever see me defend typical airline management, and as I said upthread the industry's current position re: government rescue is ridiculous, e.g. you owe us $50 billion, we owe you nothing. But the current situation is pretty off-the-charts in terms of exterior stressors. This is not a hurricane destroying some planes, or even 9/11. This is revenue dropping to virtually zero for at least half a year in a business that is extremely cash flow dependent. To advance your example of prudent personal finance, of course individuals should keep three to six months' funds on hand for rainy days if they can amass it (and many can't, particularly younger people), but virtually no individual has cash stacked up to live on for years in the aftermath of a meteor strike. This is a meta event.

That said it wouldn't bother me to see Doug Parker sweeping up at Denny's after this is over.