Manager,

A stock buy back takes outstanding shares off the market. On one hand it makes the remaining shares more valuable but on the other hand it reduces the number of shares required for a controlling stake.

ALK is doing a stock buy back and they split there shares about six weeks ago.

As for B6, not sure it would be worth DAL acquiring them. Too much slot divestiture to keep them under a majority threshold in NYC. There are other issues too. Time will tell of course.

If HAL gets any more HND slots DAL has to buy em.

As for the chess match on global alliances, there is sure to be some shifting that will occur.

I also suspect that even though this agreement between Parker and the AMR unions is public, USAPA was unaware, and there will be a little bit of disunity as a result. There is always opportunity in disunity. I suspect there will be a lot more to this story. If UAL or others start going after assets this could get interesting.

This year is going to be another interesting year.