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WORLDWIDE PANDEMIC | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2020
Worldwide Pandemic [Abstract] |
Worldwide Pandemic | WORLDWIDE PANDEMIC As a result of the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, throughout the world, including into the United States, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization classified the virus as a pandemic. The speed with which the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have changed the U.S. economic landscape, outlook, and in particular the travel industry, has been swift and unexpected. The Company began to see a negative impact on bookings for future travel in late February 2020, which quickly accelerated during the remainder of first quarter and into second quarter, when trip cancellations outpaced new passenger bookings during the majority of March and April 2020. The Company began proactively canceling a significant portion of its scheduled flights in March, and continued making cancellations throughout second and third quarters, as the Company grounded a significant portion of its fleet and operated a significantly reduced portion of its previously scheduled capacity. The Company continued to experience significant negative impacts to passenger demand and bookings in third quarter 2020 due to the pandemic. Based on these events and the uncertainty they created, the Company immediately began to focus on its liquidity, including quickly and substantially enhancing its cash holdings. Since the beginning of 2020, the Company has raised a total of $18.9 billion, net of fees. On April 20, 2020, the Company entered into definitive documentation with the United States Department of Treasury (the "Treasury") with respect to funding support pursuant to the Payroll Support Program ("Payroll Support") under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act ("CARES Act"). Payroll Support funds had to be used to pay employee wages and benefits through at least September 30, 2020. As of September 30, 2020, the Company has received five installments of Payroll Support from the CARES Act. The cumulative amounts received totaled $3.4 billion, including $1.6 billion received in April, $652 million received in both May and June, $326 million received in July 2020, and $94 million received in September 2020. As consideration for the Payroll Support, the Company issued a promissory note (the "Note") in favor of the Treasury and entered into a warrant agreement with the Treasury (the "Warrant Agreement"), pursuant to which the Company agreed to issue warrants (each, a "Warrant") to purchase common stock of the Company to the Treasury. As of September 30, 2020, the Company has provided a Note in the aggregate amount of $976 million and issued Warrants valued at a total of $40 million to purchase up to an aggregate of 2.7 million shares of the Company's common stock, subject to adjustment pursuant to the terms of the Warrants. Pursuant to the terms of the Payroll Support Program agreement and the CARES Act, the Payroll Support funds could only be utilized to pay qualifying salaries, wages, and benefits, as defined in the CARES Act. As of September 30, 2020, excluding the $976 million Note and value allocated to the Warrants, all Payroll Support funds received have been allocated to reduce eligible costs in the accompanying unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income (Loss) for the nine months ended September 30, 2020. The Note matures in full on April 19, 2030, and is subject to mandatory prepayment requirements in connection with certain change of control triggering events that may occur prior to its maturity. The Company has an option to prepay the Note at any time without premium or penalty. Amounts outstanding under the Note bear interest at a rate of 1.00 percent before April 20, 2025 and, afterwards, at a rate equal to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate or other benchmark replacement rate consistent with customary market conventions plus a margin of 2.00 percent. The Note contains customary representations and warranties and events of default. The Warrant Agreement sets out the Company’s obligations to issue Warrants in connection with disbursements of Payroll Support and to file a resale shelf registration statement for the Warrants and the underlying shares of common stock. The Company has also granted the Treasury certain demand underwritten offering and piggyback registration rights with respect to the Warrants and the underlying common stock. Each Warrant is exercisable at a strike price of $36.47 per share of common stock and will expire on the fifth anniversary of the issue date of such Warrant. The Warrants will be settled through net share settlement or net cash settlement, at the Company’s option. The Warrants include adjustments for below market issuances, payment of dividends, and other customary anti-dilution provisions. The Warrants do not have voting rights. In addition to obtaining financing under the CARES Act and accessing the capital markets, the Company believes it has made significant progress on bolstering its liquidity through efforts including aggressively evaluating all capital spending, discretionary spending, and non-essential costs for near-term cost reductions or deferrals; reducing the Company's published flight schedule; placing a significant number of aircraft in storage; implementing voluntary separation and time-off programs for Employees; suspending all hiring and non-contract salary increases; reducing named executive officer salaries and Board of Director cash retainer fees by 20 percent; and modifying vendor and supplier payment terms. The Company will continue evaluating the need for further flight schedule adjustments. To support physical-distancing, the Company is currently limiting the number of seats sold on each flight to allow for middle seats to remain open for Customers who are not traveling together through November 2020. On June 1, 2020, the Company announced Voluntary Separation Program 2020, a voluntary separation program that allowed eligible Employees the opportunity to voluntarily separate from the Company in exchange for severance, medical/dental coverage for a specified period of time, and travel privileges based on years of service. Virtually all of the Company’s Employees hired before June 1, 2020 were eligible to participate in Voluntary Separation Program 2020. Employees electing to participate in Voluntary Separation Program 2020 were required to notify the Company of their election no later than July 15, 2020--with the stipulation that all Employees electing to participate had a total of seven days from their date of initial election to rescind their election and remain employed by the Company. As determined after the deadline to rescind such election, a total of over 4,200 Employees elected to participate in Voluntary Separation Program 2020, consisting of the following breakdown among workgroups: 1,060 from Ground Operations and Provisioning, 725 Flight Attendants, 630 Pilots, 390 from Customer Support and Services, 185 from Maintenance, 90 from other Contract groups, and 1,140 Managerial and Administrative Employees. Voluntary Separation Program 2020 participants’ last day of work primarily fell between August 15, 2020 and September 30, 2020, as assigned by the Company based on the operational needs of particular work locations and departments, determined on an individual-by-individual basis. In conjunction with Voluntary Separation Program 2020, the Company also offered certain contract Employees the option to take voluntary Extended Emergency Time Off ("Extended ETO"), for periods between six and 18 months, with the exception of Pilots, who could elect to take Extended ETO for periods up to five years. Employees taking Extended ETO do not perform any work for the Company and are considered inactive while on leave, but do get paid a portion of their wages and continue to receive all associated benefits, as well as accrue service credit for all benefits. Contract employees who elected to take Extended ETO for periods between 12 and 18 months and had 10 or more years of service have been given the opportunity to convert to the Voluntary Separation Program 2020 beginning on September 1, 2020, until up to 90 days before the end of their respective Extended ETO term. The purpose of Voluntary Separation Program 2020 and Extended ETO is to maintain a suitable sized workforce to operate at reduced capacity relative to the Company's operations prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. In accordance with the accounting guidance in ASC Topic 712 (Compensation — Nonretirement Postemployment Benefits), the Company accrued charges related to the special termination benefits described above upon Employees accepting Voluntary Separation Program 2020 or Extended ETO offers, which will be reduced as program benefits are paid. Costs incurred for Voluntary Separation Program 2020 and Extended ETO, which totaled $1.1 billion during third quarter 2020, are recorded as a component of Payroll support and voluntary Employee programs, net, in the accompanying unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income (Loss). Within that line item, these charges are netted against the allocation of the remainder of the Payroll Support Program funds utilized to fund salaries, wages, and benefits, which totaled $1.2 billion during third quarter 2020. The Company accrued expenses totaling $613 million for its Extended ETO program during third quarter 2020, consisting of future wages and benefits for the Employees that will not be working. The Company has accrued amounts up to 18 months for all Employees that elected Extended ETO, but did not include amounts related to Pilots for periods beyond February 2022, based on the uncertainty of its future capacity levels, and because it is not currently probable that such Employees will not be recalled to work beyond that timeframe. Therefore, future adjustments to the amounts accrued as of September 30, 2020, may become necessary at a later date. Refer to the following table for amounts accrued and amounts reduced related to Voluntary Separation Program 2020 and Extended ETO as of September 30, 2020.
(in millions) |  | Voluntary Separation Program 2020 |  | Extended ETO |  | Total
Amounts accrued |  | $ | 307 |  |  | $ | — |  |  | $ | 307 |
Balance at June 30, 2020 |  | 307 |  |  | — |  |  | 307 |
Amounts accrued |  | 485 |  |  | 613 |  |  | 1,098 |
Amounts reduced |  | (173) |  |  | (25) |  |  | (198) |
Balance at September 30, 2020 (a) |  | $ | 619 |  |  | $ | 588 |  |  | $ | 1,207 |
(a) See Note 10 for the location of the Voluntary Separation Program 2020 and Extended ETO balances within the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet. In response to flight schedule adjustments due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of aircraft were taken out of the Company’s schedule beginning in late March, and placed in short-term storage, as well as some in a longer term storage program. As of September 30, 2020, 104 aircraft remained in long-term storage, including 34 Boeing MAX 737 aircraft. Given the current expectation that these aircraft have been placed in storage temporarily, the Company has continued to record depreciation expense associated with them. As a result of the events and impacts surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, including the Company's net loss incurred during the nine months ended September 30, 2020, and the significant number of aircraft that have been placed in storage, the Company considered whether these conditions indicated that it was more likely than not that the Company’s $970 million in Goodwill and its $295 million in indefinite-lived intangible assets were impaired. Upon review, the Company determined that, based on the facts and circumstances in existence as of September 30, 2020, the fair values more likely than not exceeded book values of both its reporting unit and its indefinite-lived intangible assets and therefore, no quantitative test was required. In addition, the Company has assessed whether any impairment of its amortizable assets existed, and has determined that no charges were deemed necessary under applicable accounting standards as of September 30, 2020. The Company’s assumptions about future conditions important to its assessment of potential impairment of its amortizable assets, indefinite-lived intangible assets, and goodwill, including the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and other ongoing impacts to its business, are subject to uncertainty, and the Company will continue to monitor these conditions in future periods as new information becomes available, and will update its analyses accordingly. The Company's income tax benefit recorded for the first nine months of 2020 was at a rate of 25.9 percent, which is higher than the first nine months of 2019 tax rate of 22.0 percent. The higher effective tax rate in 2020 reflects the anticipated benefit of carrying back full year 2020 projected net losses to claim tax refunds against previous cash taxes paid relating to tax years 2015 through 2019, some of which were at higher rates than the current year.

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