10. Leases

Arrangements with Commercial Airlines — Pursuant to contractual agreements with our airline partners, we place our equipment on commercial aircraft operated by the airlines for the purpose of delivering the Gogo service to passengers on the aircraft. There are currently two types of commercial airline arrangements: Turnkey and Airline Directed.

Under the Turnkey model, we account for equipment transactions as operating leases of space for our equipment on the aircraft. We may be responsible for the costs of installing and/or deinstalling the equipment. The majority of the equipment transactions involve the transfer of legal title but do not meet sales recognition for accounting purposes because the risks and rewards of ownership are not fully transferred due to our continuing involvement with the equipment, the length of the term of our agreements with the airlines, and restrictions in the agreements regarding the airlines’ use of the equipment. Under the Turnkey model, we refer to our relationship with the airline as a “partner”.

Under the Turnkey model, the assets are recorded as airborne equipment on our unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheets, as noted in Note 5, “Composition of Certain Balance Sheet Accounts.” Any upfront equipment payments are accounted for as lease incentives and recorded as deferred airborne lease incentives on our unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheets and are recognized as a reduction of the cost of service revenue on a straight-line basis over the term of the agreement with the airline. We recognized $10.1 million and $28.1 million, respectively, for the three and nine month periods ended September 30, 2017, and $7.8 million and $20.7 million, respectively, for the prior year periods as a reduction to our cost of service revenue in our unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations. As of September 30, 2017, deferred airborne lease incentives of $39.1 million and $121.6 million, respectively, are included in current and non-current liabilities in our unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheet. As of December 31, 2016, deferred airborne lease incentives of $36.3 million and $135.9 million, respectively, are included in current and non-current liabilities in our unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheet. The decrease in our deferred airborne lease incentives is due primarily to the transition in the accounting treatment for one of our airline agreements from a Turnkey model in the prior year period to an Airline Directed model in the first quarter of 2017 due to specific provisions elected by the airline.

Under the Turnkey model, the revenue share paid to our airline partners represents operating lease payments. They are deemed to be contingent rental payments, as the payments due to each airline are based on a percentage of our CA-NA and CA-ROW service revenue generated from that airline’s passengers, which is unknown until realized. Therefore, we cannot estimate the lease payments due to an airline at the commencement of our contract with such airline. This rental expense is included in cost of service revenue and is partially offset by the amortization of the deferred airborne lease incentives discussed above. Such rental expenses totaled a net charge of $7.7 million and $26.9 million, respectively, for the three and nine month periods ended September 30, 2017, and $10.1 million and $32.3 million, respectively, for the prior year periods.

A contract with one of our airline partners requires us to provide the airline partner with a cash rebate of $1.8 million in June 2018.

Under the Airline Directed model, which we have historically used on a limited basis, equipment transactions qualify for sale treatment due to the specific provisions of the agreement. When all the recognition conditions are met for the equipment, the sale is recognized as equipment revenue. When equipment and services are not separable, equipment revenue is deferred and recognized over the service period. Under the Airline Directed model, we refer to our relationship with the airline as a “customer”. For more information see Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” in our 2016 10-K.

Leases and Cell Site Contracts — We have lease agreements relating to certain facilities and equipment, which are considered operating leases. Rent expense for such operating leases was $3.0 million and $9.0 million, respectively, for the three and nine month periods ended September 30, 2017, and $3.0 million and $8.9 million, respectively, for the prior year periods. Additionally, we have operating leases with wireless service providers for tower space and base station capacity on a volume usage basis (“cell site leases”), some of which provide for minimum annual payments. Our cell site leases generally provide for an initial noncancelable term with various renewal options. Total cell site rental expense was $2.3 and $7.0 million, respectively, for the three and nine month periods ended September 30, 2017, and $2.3 million and $7.0 million, respectively, for the prior year periods.

Annual future minimum obligations for operating leases for each of the next five years and thereafter, other than the arrangements we have with our commercial airline partners, as of September 30, 2017, are as follows (in thousands):


	Operating
Years ending December 31,	Leases
2017 (period from October 1 to December 31)	$	5,005
2018	$	18,832
2019	$	17,765
2020	$	15,718
2021	$	15,478
Thereafter	$	95,693

Equipment Leases – We lease certain computer and network equipment under capital leases, for which interest has been imputed with annual interest rates in an approximate range of 8% to 14%. As of September 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016 the computer equipment leases were classified as part of office equipment, furniture, and fixtures and other in our unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheet at a gross cost of $5.1 million and $3.9 million, respectively. As of September 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016, the network equipment leases were classified as part of network equipment in our unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheet at a gross cost of $7.5 million and $7.5 million, respectively. Annual future minimum obligations under capital leases for each of the next five years and thereafter, as of September 30, 2017, are as follows (in thousands):


	Capital
Years ending December 31,	Leases
2017 (period from October 1 to December 31)	$	947
2018		2,030
2019		1,016
2020		34
Thereafter		—

Total minimum lease payments		4,027
Less: Amount representing interest		(401	)

Present value of net minimum lease payments	$	3,626

The $3.6 million present value of net minimum lease payments as of September 30, 2017 has a current portion of $2.1 million included in the current portion of long-term debt and capital leases and a non-current portion of $1.5 million included in other non-current liabilities.