Special Items (Tables)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2021

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

Schedule of unusual or infrequent items, or both

The following is a listing of special items presented on our consolidated statements of operations for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020 (in millions):


	Three Months Ended September 30,				Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2021		2020		2021		2020
Special Items
Federal payroll support grant recognition(1)	$	(186)	$	(332)	$	(830)	$	(636)
CARES Act employee retention credit(2)	—		—		(11)		—
Fleet impairment(3)	—		56		—		258
Severance and benefit costs(4)	—		58		—		58
Losses on sale-leaseback transactions(5)	—		106		—		106
Total	$	(186)	$	(112)	$	(841)	$	(214)

(1) As discussed in Note 3 to our condensed consolidated financial statements, we received assistance in the form of grants and unsecured loans under various federal payroll support programs. Funds under these federal payroll support programs were to be used exclusively for the continuation of payment of crewmember wages, salaries and benefits. The carrying values of the payroll support grants were recorded within other liabilities and were recognized as contra-expenses within special items on our consolidated statements of operations as the funds are utilized. We utilized $186 million and $830 million of the payroll support grants for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021, respectively. Our payroll support grants were fully utilized as of September 30, 2021.

(2) The Employee Retention Credit ("ERC") under the CARES Act is a refundable tax credit which encourages businesses to keep employees on the payroll during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eligible employers can qualify for up to $5,000 of credit for each employee based on qualified wages paid after March 12, 2020 and before January 1, 2021. The Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") subsequently issued Notice 2021-23 and Notice 2021-49 which collectively extended the ERC eligibility to cover qualified wages paid after December 31, 2020 and before January 1, 2022. Qualified wages are the wages paid to an employee for the time that the employee is not providing services due to an economic hardship, specifically, either (1) a full or partial suspension of operations by order of a governmental authority due to COVID-19, or (2) a significant decline in gross receipts. Our policy is to recognize the ERC when it is filed with the IRS. We recognized $11 million of ERC as a contra-expense within special items on our consolidated statements of operations for the nine months ended September 30, 2021. No ERC was recognized during the three months ended September 30, 2021.

(3) Under the Property, Plant, and Equipment topic of the Codification, we are required to assess long-lived assets for impairment when events and circumstances indicate that the assets may be impaired. An impairment of long-lived assets exists when the sum of the estimated undiscounted future cash flows expected to be generated directly by the assets are less than the book value of the assets. Our long-lived assets include both owned and leased properties which are classified as property and equipment, and operating lease assets on our consolidated balance sheets, respectively.

Our operations were adversely impacted by the unprecedented decline in demand for travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. To determine if impairment exists in our fleet, we grouped our aircraft by fleet-type and estimated their future cash flows based on projections of capacity, aircraft age, maintenance requirements, and other relevant conditions. Based on the assessment, we determined the future cash flows from the operation of our Embraer E190 fleet were lower than the carrying value. For those aircraft, including the ones that are under operating lease, and related spare parts in our Embraer E190 fleet, we recorded an impairment loss of $56 million and $258 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020, respectively. These losses represent the difference between the book value of these assets and their fair value. We estimated the fair value of our Embraer E190 fleet using third party valuations and considered specific circumstances such as aircraft age, maintenance requirements and condition, and therefore classified as Level 3 in the fair value hierarchy. We evaluated the remaining fleet and determined the future cash flows of our Airbus A320 and Airbus A321 fleet exceeded their carrying value as of September 30, 2021.

No impairment loss was recorded for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021.

As the extent of the ongoing impact from the COVID-19 pandemic remains uncertain, we will update our assessment as new information becomes available.

(4) The unprecedented declines in demand and in our capacity caused by COVID-19 has led to a significant reduction to our staffing needs. In June 2020, we announced voluntary separation programs which allowed eligible crewmembers the opportunity to voluntarily separate from the Company in exchange for severance, health coverage for a specified period of time, and travel privileges based on years of service. Virtually all of our crewmembers were eligible to participate in the voluntary separation program with the exception of our union-represented crewmembers and crewmembers of our wholly-owned subsidiaries (JetBlue Technology Ventures and JetBlue Travel Products). Separation agreements for the majority of the crewmembers who elected to participate in the voluntary programs were executed in the third quarter of 2020. One-time costs of $58 million, consisting of severance and health benefits, were recorded for the three months ended September 30, 2020 in connection with the programs. Approximately $39 million of this charge was disbursed during the third quarter of 2020. Substantially all of the remaining balance has been disbursed as of September 30, 2021 with the residual amount expected to be disbursed by mid-2022. Accruals related to the voluntary separation programs are primarily recorded in accrued salaries, wages and benefits, and accounts payable on our consolidated balance sheets.

(5) In the third quarter of 2020, we executed $327 million of aircraft sale-leaseback transactions. Of these transactions, $118 million did not qualify as sales for accounting purposes. The remaining $209 million qualified as sales and generated a loss of $106 million. These losses represent the difference between the book value of these assets and their fair value. We estimated the fair value of the related aircraft considering third party valuations and considered specific circumstances such as aircraft age, maintenance requirements and condition, and therefore classified as Level 3 in the fair value hierarchy.