[hogFeast]

They don't.

Some have debt, most of the ones where I am do not though. You have depreciation, which is non-cash. Even staff costs have a variable component based on hours flown, although (where I am) they still have to pay a base salary.

(Btw, just generally...most airlines are run very efficiently. They are huge enterprises deploying these big expensive assets, and they run with very little capital. Obviously, this does vary by strategy but the low-cost airlines usually turn their capital more than once...just looking at $LUV...134m passengers, 747 planes, $22bn revenue on invested capital of $10-12bn...just based on a quick calc)

Unsurprisingly, if you are an airline company and you stop running flights then you don't have many costs.

The issue airlines have is labour law. I think we will see countries like the Nordics manage this better (SAS appears to have been able to furlough 90% of their staff) because it is easier to lay off staff temporarily (I believe this is in sector-wide bargaining agreements). In the UK, as a counter-example, it is much harder because there are no sector-wide agreements so temporary lay-off needs to be in your contract. Maybe airlines have this, I don't know but it seems like some don't see what the option is between bailout to pay staff their base salary or layoffs (and btw, airlines could just sack everyone which would end up being massively costly to the rest of us). We aren't bailing out the airlines, we are bailing out the staff.