JetBlue Airways (B6, New York JFK) has pledged certain landing and take-off slots at Washington National, New York La Guardia, and New York JFK airports, as well as its brand, as collateral for a USD750 million term loan credit arrangement with Barclays Bank as the administrating agent.

The airline said in an SEC filing that the loan is due for repayment through June 17, 2024. It said it had fully drawn down on the facility and intended "to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, including payment of fees and expenses in connection with the Term Loan Facility, and to support our liquidity position".

JetBlue said that in order to pledge slots under the loan agreement, it had to remove them as collateral from another previous loan agreed to in 2017. In return, JetBlue pledged some of its unencumbered aircraft, simulators, and other assets as collateral for the older loan.

The new loan is valued at a variable LIBOR plus margin interest rate and is subject to a 5% annual amortisation rate, payable quarterly starting on September 30, 2020.

In other news, JetBlue has informed its staff in an internal memo seen by Business Insider that it will outsource its inhouse airport operations at "some" of the smaller airports it serves effective October 1, 2020. Neither the stations affected nor the number of staff that could be laid-off as a result were not disclosed.

Under the terms of the federal payroll support programme, JetBlue is banned from any involuntary lay-offs through the end of September 2020.