Airtran 2009 Annual Report Download - page 106

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Note 12 – Employee Benefit Plans
All employees, except pilots, are eligible to participate in our consolidated 401(k) plan, a defined contribution
benefit plan that qualifies under Section 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code. Participants may contribute up to
15 percent of their base salary to the plan. Our contributions to the plan are discretionary. The amount of our
contributions to the plan expensed in 2009, 2008, and 2007 was approximately $1.4 million, $1.4 million, and
$1.2 million, respectively.
Effective August 1, 2001, the AirTran Airways Pilot Savings and Investment Plan (Pilot Savings Plan) was
established. This plan is designed to qualify under Section 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code. Eligible
employees may contribute up to the IRS maximum allowed. We do not match pilot contributions to this Pilot
Savings Plan. Effective on August 1, 2001, we also established the Pilot-Only Defined Contribution Pension
Plan (DC Plan) which qualifies under Section 403(b) of the Internal Revenue Code. Our contributions were 10.5
percent of compensation, as defined, during 2009, 2008, and 2007, respectively. We expensed $17.3 million,
$15.7 million, and $14.0 million in contributions to the DC Plan during 2009, 2008 and 2007, respectively.
Under our 1995 Employee Stock Purchase Plan, employees who complete 12 months of service are eligible to
make periodic purchases of our common stock at up to a 15 percent discount from the market value on the
offering date. The Board of Directors determines the discount rate, which was increased to 10 percent from 5
percent effective November 1, 2001. We are authorized to issue up to 4 million shares of common stock under
this plan. During 2009, 2008, and 2007, the employees purchased approximately 227,000, 376,000, and 154,000
shares, respectively, at an average price of $4.85, $3.65, and $8.81 per share, respectively.
We provide postemployment defined benefits to certain eligible employees. At December 31, 2009, the liability
for the accumulated postemployment benefit obligations under the plans was $2.9 million, and unrecognized
prior service costs and net actuarial gains were $4.4 million. Benefit expense under the plans was $1.0 million,
$1.1 million and $3.9 million in 2009, 2008 and 2007, respectively. The plans have no assets and benefit
payments are funded from operations and in all periods presented are not material. In December 2007, federal
legislation was enacted increasing the mandatory retirement age for U.S. commercial airline pilots from age 60
to age 65. The impact of the legislation was to decrease the actuarially determined liability for the unfunded
status of the plan by $6.0 million with a corresponding increase in accumulated other comprehensive income,
net of income tax of $3.8 million.
Note 13 – Supplemental Cash Flow Information
Supplemental cash flow information is summarized as follows, (in thousands):
Year ended December 31,
2009 2008 2007
Supplemental disclosure of cash flow activities:
Cash paid for interest, net of capitalized interest $ 77,238 $ 75,473 $ 64,397
Cash paid (received) for income taxes, net of amounts refunded (198) 332
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N
on-cash financing and investing activities:
Aircraft acquisition debt financing
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178,550 293,650
Acquisition under capital leases
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5,077
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