Investments

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2021

Investments, Debt and Equity Securities [Abstract]

INVESTMENTS

We have developed strategic relationships with a number of airlines and airline services companies through joint ventures and other forms of cooperation and support, including equity investments. Our equity investments reinforce our commitment to these relationships and generally enhance our ability to offer input to the investee on strategic issues and direction, in some cases through representation on the board of directors.

Changes in the valuation of investments accounted for at fair value are recorded in gain/(loss) on investments in our income statement within non-operating expense and are driven by changes in stock prices, other valuation techniques for investments in companies without publicly-traded shares and foreign currency fluctuations. We recorded gains of $211 million and $473 million on our fair value investments during the three and six months ended June 30, 2021 and gains of $8 million and losses of $104 million during the three and six months ended June 30, 2020, respectively.

Our share of Unifi Aviation's financial results is recorded in contracted services in our income statement as this entity is integral to the operations of our business, while our share of other equity method investees' financial results is recorded in impairments and equity method losses in our income statement under non-operating expense. If an investment accounted for under the equity method experiences a loss in value that is determined to be other than temporary, we will reduce our carrying value of the investment to fair value and record the loss in impairments and equity method losses in our income statement.


Equity investments ownership interest and carrying value
	Accounting Treatment	Ownership Interest				Carrying Value
(in millions)		June 30, 2021		December 31, 2020		June 30, 2021		December 31, 2020
Wheels Up	Fair Value	24	%	24	%	$	520	$	210
Hanjin-KAL	Fair Value	13	%	13	%	517		512
Air France-KLM	Fair Value	6	%	9	%	181		235
China Eastern	Fair Value	3	%	3	%	197		201
CLEAR	Fair Value	6	%	6	%	331		120
Unifi Aviation	Equity Method	49	%	49	%	162		154
Other investments	Various					234		233
Equity investments						$	2,143	$	1,665

Wheels Up. In the March 2021 quarter, Wheels Up entered into a definitive agreement to become publicly-traded via a merger with Aspirational, and the transaction closed on July 13, 2021. Aspirational changed its name to Wheels Up Experience Inc. upon consummation of the transaction, and the Wheels Up common stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol UP. We account for our investment under the fair value option and will use the stock price to recognize fair value adjustments beginning in the September 2021 quarter.

Clear Secure, Inc. ("CLEAR"). In June 2021, CLEAR launched and priced an initial public offering of Class A common stock, which began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol YOU. Based on the June 30, 2021 closing price of those shares, our 6% ownership interest (on a fully exchanged and converted basis) in CLEAR is valued at $331 million.

Other Investments. This category includes various investments that are accounted for at fair value or under the equity method, depending on our ownership interest and the level of influence conveyed by our investment. Included therein are our investments in Grupo Aeroméxico, LATAM Airlines Group S.A. ("LATAM") and Virgin Atlantic, all of which are undergoing in-court or out-of-court restructurings, and the carrying values of these investments have been reduced to and remain zero at June 30, 2021. In order to support our relationships with these carriers, we have provided them with strategic and operational assistance through their restructurings. We have notes payable of approximately $530 million, which are recorded in current maturities of debt and finance leases, and receivables from those partners recorded within other noncurrent assets as of June 30, 2021, including $185 million related to our option to purchase certain obligations of a lender under Grupo Aeroméxico's restructuring process and that lender’s right to require our purchase of that portion of its obligations.

GOL. During 2020, we loaned GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes, the parent company of GOL Linhas Aéreas (operating as GOL), $250 million to be used exclusively to repay the term loan we had previously guaranteed. In the June 2021 quarter, GOL repaid the outstanding balance of this loan in full.