Lease Obligations

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2017

LEASE OBLIGATIONS

We lease aircraft, airport terminals, maintenance facilities, ticket offices and other property and equipment from third parties. Rental expense for operating leases, which is recorded on a straight-line basis over the life of the lease term, totaled $1.3 billion for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016 and $1.2 billion for the year ended December 31, 2015. Amounts due under capital leases are recorded as liabilities, while assets acquired under capital leases are recorded as property and equipment. Amortization of assets recorded under capital leases is included in depreciation and amortization expense. Our airport terminal leases include contingent rents, which vary based upon facility usage, enplanements, aircraft weight and other factors. Many of our aircraft, facility and equipment leases include rental escalation clauses and/or renewal options. Our leases do not include residual value guarantees and we are not the primary beneficiary in or have other forms of variable interest with the lessor of the leased assets. As a result, we have not consolidated any of the entities that lease to us.

The following tables summarize our minimum rental commitments under capital leases and noncancelable operating leases (including certain aircraft flown by regional carriers) with initial or remaining terms in excess of one year for the years succeeding December 31, 2017:

Capital Leases



(in millions)	Total
2018	$	116
2019	92
2020	65
2021	41
2022	24
Thereafter	126
Total minimum lease payments	464
Less: amount of lease payments representing interest	(70		)
Present value of future minimum capital lease payments	394
Less: current obligations under capital leases	(97		)
Long-term capital lease obligations	$	297

Operating Leases



(in millions)	Delta Lease Payments⁽¹⁾		Contract Carrier Aircraft Lease Payments⁽²⁾		Total
2018	$	1,469	$	266	$	1,735
2019	1,322		267		1,589
2020	1,189		241		1,430
2021	983		173		1,156
2022	883		153		1,036
Thereafter	8,819		471		9,290
Total minimum lease payments	$	14,665	$	1,571	$	16,236


⁽¹⁾	Includes payments accounted for as construction obligations.

⁽²⁾

Represents the minimum lease obligations under our contract carrier agreements with Compass Airlines, LLC, ExpressJet Airlines, Inc., GoJet Airlines, LLC, Republic Airline, Inc. and SkyWest Airlines, Inc.