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NEW ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2017
New Accounting Pronouncements and Changes in Accounting Principles [Abstract] |
NEW ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS | NEW ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS On August 28, 2017, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (the "FASB") issued Accounting Standards Update ("ASU") No. 2017-12, Targeted Improvements to Accounting for Hedging Activities. The standard amends the hedge accounting model to enable entities to better portray the economics of their risk management activities in the financial statements and enhance the transparency and understandability of hedge results. The amendments also simplify the application of hedge accounting in certain situations. This ASU is effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2018, with early adoption permitted in any interim or annual period. The most significant impacts of this ASU on the Company's accounting will be the elimination of ineffectiveness for all cash flow hedges in a hedging relationship, as well as a change in classification of premium expense associated with option contracts. Currently, such premium expense for the Company's fuel hedges is reflected as a component of Other (gains) losses, net, in the Condensed Consolidated Statement of Income, but under the new ASU will be reflected as a component of the line item to which the hedge relates, which is Fuel and oil expense. The Company is currently considering early adoption of the ASU as of January 1, 2018. On March 10, 2017, the FASB issued ASU No. 2017-07, Improving the Presentation of Net Periodic Pension Cost and Net Periodic Postretirement Benefit Cost. The standard requires employers to present the service cost component of the net periodic benefit cost in the same income statement line item as other employee compensation costs arising from services rendered during the period. The other components of net benefit cost, including amortization of prior service cost/credit, and settlement and curtailment effects, are to be included in nonoperating expenses. This ASU is effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2017. The Company does not expect this to have a material impact on Operating income and expects this to have no impact on Net income. The Company will adopt this guidance as of January 1, 2018. On January 26, 2017, the FASB issued ASU No. 2017-04, Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment. The standard simplifies the accounting for goodwill impairment by removing Step 2 of the goodwill impairment test (as defined by the FASB), which requires a hypothetical purchase price allocation (implied fair value of goodwill) to measure impairment loss. This ASU is effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2019, with early adoption permitted. The Company does not expect this ASU to have a significant impact on its financial statement presentation or results. On February 25, 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-02, Leases. The standard is effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2018, with early adoption permitted. The guidance requires lessees to recognize a right-of-use asset and a lease liability on the balance sheet for all leases (with the exception of short-term leases) at the lease commencement date and recognize expenses on the income statement in a similar manner to the current guidance in Accounting Standards Codification 840, Leases. The lease liability will be measured at the present value of the unpaid lease payments and the right-of-use asset will be derived from the calculation of the lease liability. Lease payments will include fixed and in-substance fixed payments, variable payments based on an index or rate, reasonably certain purchase options, termination penalties, fees paid by the lessee to the owners of a special-purpose entity for restructuring the transaction, and probable amounts the lessee will owe under a residual value guarantee. Lease payments will not include variable lease payments other than those that depend on an index or rate, any guarantee by the lessee of the lessor’s debt, or any amount allocated to non-lease components. The Company has formed a project team to evaluate and implement the standard, and currently believes the most significant impact of this ASU on its accounting will be the balance sheet impact of its aircraft operating leases, which will significantly increase assets and liabilities. As of September 30, 2017, the Company had 53 leased aircraft under operating leases and also had another 76 aircraft under operating leases that are being subleased to another airline. As of September 30, 2017, the net present value of future rents for those aircraft was approximately $1.0 billion. This amount only includes contractual payments due to lessors, and does not consider certain items that the standard requires to be assessed in determining the final asset and liability to be reflected on the Company's balance sheet, such as lease renewal options and potential impairments, nor does it consider the sublease income that is due from third parties. The Company also has operating leases related to terminal operations space and other real estate leases. Although the real estate leases will also have a substantial impact to the balance sheet, the Company does not expect the leases related to terminal operations space to have a significant impact since variable lease payments, other than those based on an index or rate, are excluded from the measurement of the lease liability. The Company also does not expect the adoption of this ASU to impact any of its existing debt covenants. In addition, the standard eliminates the current build-to-suit lease accounting guidance and could result in derecognition of build-to-suit assets and liabilities that remained on the balance sheet after the end of the construction period. The underlying leases for these facilities will be subject to evaluation under the new standard. See Note 7 for further information on the Company’s build-to-suit projects. The Company anticipates utilizing the modified retrospective transition approach to adopt the standard, which requires application of the new guidance for all periods presented with an option to use certain practical expedients. The Company currently plans to adopt the standard as of January 1, 2018, pending successful implementation of a third-party lease accounting software and completion of remaining administrative tasks. The Company is continuing to evaluate the new guidance and plans to provide additional information in its 2017 10-K. On May 28, 2014, the FASB issued ASU No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers. Following the FASB's finalization of a one year deferral of this standard, the ASU is now effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2017. The Company has formed a project team to evaluate and work to implement the standard, and currently believes the most significant impact of this ASU on its accounting will be the elimination of the incremental cost method for frequent flyer accounting, which will require the Company to re-value its liabilities associated with Customer flight points with a relative fair value approach, resulting in a significant increase in the liabilities. The Company's liabilities associated with these flight points were $64 million at September 30, 2017, and the Company currently estimates that applying a relative fair value approach would increase the liabilities by approximately 20 to 25 times that value, depending on various assumptions made at the time of measurement. The adoption of the new standard is also expected to result in different income statement classification for certain types of revenues which are currently classified as Other revenues, but under the new ASU would be included in Passenger revenues. Based on the Company's full year 2016 results, the amount to be reclassified would have been approximately $600 million. However, the estimated impact of this ASU would not have had a material impact on Operating revenues and would not have impacted any of its existing debt covenants. The Company currently anticipates utilizing the full retrospective method of adoption allowed by the standard, in order to provide for comparative results in all periods presented, and will adopt the standard as of January 1, 2018. The Company is continuing to evaluate the new guidance both internally and through its participation in an industry working group, and plans to continue to provide relevant and material information prior to adoption. The Company is in the process of completing its analysis of information necessary to recast prior period results, however it does not believe there are any remaining significant implementation topics associated with the adoption of this ASU that have not yet been addressed.

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- Definition The entire disclosure of changes in accounting principles, including adoption of new accounting pronouncements, that describes the new methods, amount and effects on financial statement line items. + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 250 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/topic&trid=2122394 + Details
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