Seems like they are: See Imagination, The Land, SSE, TT, Energy. All are dead or married to their sponsor in terms of update cycles. All I am saying is that small upstarts like Eastern could get back in the game quicker with a sponsorship like this. That said, they just ordered 10 737NGs, my guess is their reserves are empty
Not at all. Airlines do not pay for airplanes when they order them [former airline employee here], so they could have money for a sponsorship, if that is something their management team would have an interest in doing and their bank accounts could afford.