BB&B didn't have a buyback problem. They had a revenue problem. Southwest doesn't currently have either. They just have inept management. I think everyone's hope is that we can avoid another large scale meltdown until they are able to strengthen the bones of the operation enough to have some resiliency.
Gary Kelly did a lot of great things as far as growing the company. He also completely sacrificed the future of the company for short term gain and then would point to our "industry leading" balance sheet for justification. I think the Christmas meltdown showed how fragile things have gotten and how much he screwed things up during his tenure. $12B can easily be ****ed away inside a month, as we have proven.
If anything, this helps the pilots' cause. The path forward in negotiations involves going through each sequential step in the RLA to get us as close as possible to a release as quickly as
possible. The next step starts May 1st.