They are sufficiently astute as to be well ahead of the issue you highlight, and only on the hook for full outgoings for the aircraft once they start generating revenue. And when you've got your own engineers to look after them, incremental cost isn't huge there either. Main outlay will be on salaries for management and the limited number of crews already on payroll but I'm pretty sure their outgoings will be only as much as they expected them to be.
Has anyone actually said the EI franchise was a "bad contract"? I'm not sure they have.
Tomorrow is another day - but perhaps slightly more than that if you're Emerald. Let's see whether there is genuinely a year to wait until they get flying in earnest....