Cash is King
The simple truth in this game is that airlines spend the money they take today (for next years travel) on paying this weeks bills. Always has been so and ever will be.
Loss making airlines stay in business simply because they still have cash to pay people. They are not broke today, only in the future, if they cant carry people then who paid today, if you follow me....
They will of course because then they will use someone elses advance cash to pay for those bills...
The crisis comes when the cash stops flowing from the card people and suddenly there is no advance money to meet current debts.
Curiously, the US charter scene operates in much the same way this credit card company has operated and companies are denied access to cash until the pax have returned. They have got used to the scheme and work with that expectation in mind but when it is suddenly imposed on a business that was not expecting it, there is no way out.
As with everything else in this life recently it's the bankers and the money men who have shagged the rest of us and they didnt even stop to kiss us in the process!