Warren Buffett says he avoided bailing out the 'big 4' airlines by dumping their stocks last spring

• Warren Buffett says he avoided a big bill by selling the "big four" airline stocks last year.
• The US government might have refused them aid if Berkshire still owned their stocks.
• Berkshire sold bank stocks to reduce its exposure to the industry, Buffett said.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

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Warren Buffett avoided having to bail out the "big four" US airlines by selling their stocks last year, he said at Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting on Saturday.

The famed investor said that the federal government might have refused to help Delta, Southwest, American, and United last spring if Berkshire still owned between 8% and 11% of them. US officials might have told them to get the money from Berkshire, which boasted more than $120 billion of cash and short-term investments at the time.

"You're looking at probably a different result than if we had kept our stock," Buffett said.

Buffett offered other fresh insights into his thinking at Berkshire's meeting. For example, he explained why Berkshire eliminated its Goldman Sachs position, slashed its JPMorgan and Wells Fargo stakes, and took a knife to several other financial holdings last year.

"We didn't like having as much money in banks as we had at the time," Buffett said, adding that he bolstered his stake in Bank of America because he liked the company and its CEO, Brian Moynihan.

"I like banks generally," Buffett continued. "I just didn't like the proportion we had compared to the possible risks if we got bad results."

The Berkshire chief also commented on how tight liquidity became before the Federal Reserve stepped in to help last year.

"They took a market where Berkshire couldn't sell bonds a day before, and turned it into one where Carnival Cruise or whatever could sell them," Buffett said.