RE "wouldn't be called free cash flow": it still would, because it'd be their own personal decision to save it for a rainy day. When they'd have to save some am

RE "wouldn't be called free cash flow": it still would, because it'd be their own personal decision to save it for a rainy day. When they'd have to save some amount for a rainy day due to regulations, that money wouldn't be considered free cash flow. FCF is, from what I understand, not automatically equal to what you send to shareholders, but sending it to shareholders is an option. Another option would be investing it, or putting it in your bank accounts, as Apple, Google, Microsoft etc are doing. The airlines simply made a business decision and bet their company on never needing to sustain a drop in traffic, and they've lost the bet. If you take whatever you have left after paying for rent, food and insurance, that's your FCF. You can now decide whether you want to save some or all of that, spend it on a new bed, or blow it on coke. The airlines chose what made them/their shareholders happy in the short term and potentially very sad in the long term.