Commitments and Contingencies

Aircraft-Related Commitments and Financing Arrangements

The Company’s contractual purchase commitments consist primarily of aircraft and engine acquisitions through manufacturers and aircraft leasing companies. As of March 31, 2012, firm aircraft orders with Airbus consisted of 103 A320 family aircraft (58 of the existing aircraft model and 45 A320 NEOs) and four spare V2500 IAE International Aero Engines AG engines. Aircraft are scheduled for delivery in the period of 2012 through 2021, and spare engines are scheduled for delivery in the period 2012 through 2018. Committed expenditures for these aircraft and related flight equipment, including estimated amounts for contractual price escalations and pre-delivery payments, will be approximately $157 million for the remainder of 2012, $323 million in 2013, $348 million in 2014, $520 million in 2015, $510 million in 2016 and $2,955 million in 2017 and beyond.

During the first quarter of 2012, the Company entered into sale and leaseback transactions with third-party aircraft lessors for the sale and leaseback of three Airbus A320 aircraft that resulted in deferred gains of $1.6 million, which are included in other non-current liabilities within the balance sheet. The deferred gains will be recognized as an offset to rent expense on a straight-line basis over the term of the respective operating leases. The Company had agreements in place prior to the delivery of these aircraft which resulted in the settlement of the purchase obligation by the lessor and the refund of $17.2 million in pre-delivery deposits from Airbus. The refunded pre-delivery deposits have been disclosed in the statement of cash flows as investing activities within pre-delivery deposits, net of refunds. All of the leases from these sale and leaseback transactions are accounted for as operating leases. Under the terms of the lease agreements, the Company will continue to operate and maintain the aircraft. Rent payments under the lease agreements are fixed for the term of the lease. The lease agreements contain standard termination events, including termination upon a breach of the Company's obligations to make rental payments and upon any other material breach of the Company's obligations under the leases, standard maintenance and return condition provisions, and the payment of maintenance reserves. Upon a termination of the lease due to a breach by the Company, the Company would be liable for standard contractual damages, possibly including damages suffered by the lessor in connection with remarketing the aircraft or while the aircraft is not leased to another party.

Litigation

The Company is subject to commercial litigation claims and to administrative and regulatory proceedings and reviews that may be asserted or maintained from time to time. The Company believes the ultimate outcome of such lawsuits, proceedings and reviews will not, individually or in the aggregate, have a material adverse effect on its financial position, liquidity or results of operations.

Credit Card Processing Arrangements

The Company has agreements with organizations that process credit card transactions arising from the purchase of air travel, baggage fees, and other ancillary services by customers. As is standard in the airline industry, the Company’s contractual arrangements with credit card processors permit them, under certain circumstances, to retain a holdback or other collateral, which the Company records as restricted cash, when future air travel and other future services are purchased via credit card transactions. The required holdback is the percentage of the Company’s overall credit card sales that its credit card processors hold to cover refunds to customers if the Company fails to fulfill its flight obligations. During 2011, the Company amended its contractual agreements with all of its processors in light of the Company’s improved balance sheet resulting from the Company's IPO and related recapitalization. These amendments effectively eliminated the Company’s restricted cash balance which should remain at zero, provided the Company continues to satisfy certain financial criteria. Failure to meet these liquidity covenants would provide the processors the right to reinstate a holdback, resulting in a commensurate reduction of unrestricted cash. As of March 31, 2012, the Company continued to be in compliance with its credit card processing agreements, resulting in the respective processors holding back $0 of remittances.

The maximum potential exposure to cash holdbacks by the Company's credit card processors, based upon advance ticket sales and $9 Fare Club memberships as of March 31, 2012 and December 31, 2011, was $168.8 million and $115.2 million, respectively.

Employees

Approximately 53% of the Company’s employees are covered under collective bargaining agreements. The table below sets forth our employee groups and status of the collective bargaining agreements.



Employee Groups	Representative	Amendable Date
Pilots	Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA)	August 2015
Flight Attendants	Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA)	August 2007
Dispatchers	Transport Workers Union (TWU)	July 2012

The collective bargaining agreement between the Company and the Company’s pilots, as represented by the Air Line Pilots Association International, represents 21% of the Company’s employees and was executed on August 1, 2010.

The collective bargaining agreement between the Company and the Company’s flight attendants, as represented by the Association of Flight Attendants AFL-CIO, represents approximately 31% of the Company’s employees and became amendable on August 6, 2007. The Company and the union are currently in negotiations to reach a new collective bargaining agreement. The CBA between the Company and its dispatchers represents approximately 1% percent of the Company’s employees.

The Company is self-insured for health care claims for eligible participating employees and qualified dependent medical claims, subject to deductibles and limitations. The Company’s liabilities for claims incurred but not reported are determined based on an estimate of the ultimate aggregate liability for claims incurred. The estimate is calculated from actual claim rates and adjusted periodically as necessary. The Company has accrued $1.7 million and $2.0 million for health care claims as of March 31, 2012 and December 31, 2011, respectively.

Other

The Company is contractually obligated to pay the following minimum guaranteed payments to the provider of its reservation system as of March 31, 2012: $2.3 million for the remainder of 2012, $3.1 million in 2013, $3.7 million in 2014, $3.7 million in 2015, $3.7 million in 2016 and $6.2 million in 2017 and thereafter.

The Company entered into a Tax Receivable Agreement (“TRA”) with the Company's Pre-IPO Stockholders (as defined in the TRA) that became effective immediately prior to the consummation of the IPO. We expect to pay $27.0 million plus applicable interest in 2012 related to the TRA as disclosed in Note 10.