More importantly, customers have benefited from our operating enhancements, as evidenced by a marked improvement in on-time departures and completion rates. Operating expenses were relatively flat sequentially and down 10% year-over-year in absolute dollars, as we benefited from our restructuring actions and continued expense controls. Adjusted EBITDA loss was $18.5 million for the quarter, including the onetime software license revenue that I just mentioned and an almost $6 million gain from aircraft sales, net of related debt extinguishment costs. Excluding those items adjusted EBITDA loss was $30.4 million, the narrowest loss in almost two years. The improved result was driven by an increase to our adjusted contribution margin and lower OpEx. We still have significant work to do, but this result highlights the progress we are making.
GAAP net loss was $144.8 million including a $56.2 million non-cash charge for the impairment of goodwill. Prepaid blocks were $79 million for the quarter, underpinned by the continued commitment from our existing customers, but negatively impacted by the changes to our programmatic coverage area and market speculation for much of the quarter prior to the completion of our new funding. More importantly we have seen a more than 200% increase in our daily block volumes since the closing of our funding transaction and we expect block sales in the fourth quarter will be the strongest of the year. We ended the quarter with $245 million of cash and cash equivalents on our balance sheet and total liquidity of $365 million including a $100 million undrawn revolver from Delta and a reserve deposit on our double ETC notes.
In addition as George highlighted, we are in active discussions on the last $50 million of our recent capital raise to bring the total proceeds to $500 million. The third quarter had a confluence of factors that led to a much higher than normal cash usage in the quarter. So let me walk you through that. Our cash balance at the end of the quarter includes the $350 million that was funded in September. A portion of those funds were used to repay a $70 million bridge loan extended by Delta during the quarter, as well as onetime transaction expenses and working capital uses during the quarter. We expect our year-end cash balance to be flat to up versus the third quarter, reflecting improving profitability, a stabilization of deferred revenue and working capital and remaining proceeds from the term loan.
In addition, we would still have $100 million available from our revolver. We are taking multiple steps to improve our adjusted contribution margins through changes to our programs and how we operate our business. These actions will allow us to focus on our strengths with the goal to drive asset utilization and efficiency. Along those lines, the new program changes are designed to focus our controlled fleet flying in our blue regions where we have significant density and a cost advantage. That density means we can be more efficient in crew scheduling and cost, more productive in our maintenance operations and provides faster response times for our customers. Leveraging our network strengths is how we plan to drive a sustainable cost advantage that will result in lower prices for customers and profitable margins for us.
Equally important we will minimize flying our controlled aircraft outside of the blue regions where we lack the density to operate profitably. However, we will continue to serve customers through our leading charter capabilities at competitive market rates. Air Partner has proven it can deliver a great service, with a scale that leverages the strength of third-party operators with density in those regions. Striking the right balance of what we call, programmatic in-region flying and profitable charter out of region is a key part of our strategy going forward. Our internal actions are also contributing to improving utility and efficiency. The consolidation of our flight operations into our member operations center in Atlanta, has improved our scheduling optimization and coordination with 95% of our operations team now all, under one roof.
