Originally Posted by FWAAA

While I agree with you that there is a circular death spiral caused, in part, by bookaway and pre-emptive cancellations (like those described by the OP), I have to disagree with the portion of your quote that I bolded.

Airlines facing financial hardship most certainly don't have access to the money paid today for flights occurring six months from now. Several weeks prior to DL's Ch 11 filing, DL disclosed that its credit card processor was demanding a holdback level of $600 million to $850 million, representing cash that the credit card processor would hold until the flights were completed.

Having already filed Ch 11, FlyI is probably on a shorter leash under its credit card processing agreement. My assumption is that ticket revenue is released to FlyI when the flights depart.

Airlines are generally NOT allowed to utilize their future flight revenue as working capital. Credit card companies are much too savvy to allow that.