2 Blue, I respectfully disagree. Anyone can lower prices and get a near 100% load factor. There is no trick to that. And investors (stockholders and creditors) are only one of the company stakeholders. Any company has to consider investors, customers, management and employees, all of whom depend on the company. Operating at near 100%, with slim reserves and few spares is not fair to any of the above, especially during IROPS. It is a strain on all involved, and eventually will result in lower load factors without fare increases, unhappy employees, and disappointed investors. The key is BALANCE! I think Al's e-mail recognizes that fact, but the question is what will we do to change things? Our goal should be to operate around 80-85% and make a fair profit. We had our best profit margins when we operated at that level. Southwest does it (yes, thanks to hedging) with well below 80% load factors. Giving away seats gets you customers, but not good, loyal, long term customers, just cheap ones or very poor ones that could not othewise afford to fly. Loyal customers are built with good service, dependability, and a good flying experience at a reasonable price. We are not currently meeting the standard for dependability because we are overstretched, in my view. Consequently, when a plane diverts to Raleigh enroute to MCO, customers in Dulles end up departing 8 hours late to Long Beach! Why? No spares, so the Dulles plane is taken off the schedule and sent to rescue the folks in Raleigh. Meanwhile, pilots and crews work an extra 8 hours, and get paid for one. That happened about a month ago, without IROPs. End result, no one is happy and it costs the company a bunch of money.