Walter.. Don't forgett though that AMR is extremely competitive on thier home turf... From what I understand when AAI started doing DFW-LAX and DFW-LAS, AMR doubled their flights and then dropped prices below AAI's just to crush AAI's expansion plans at DFW. Their was another little airline called DAL that all but pulled out of DFW as well because of AMR.. AAI will not go head to head loosing money just to compete for market share. They can't afford to.... As far as the number of employees per airplane, yes they work rampers too hard. But, the other alternative is to do like Alaska and Midwest have done and fire all their in house rampers and contract the ramp to the lowest bidder... What most people are forgetting is that AAI really wants a midwest hub, and Milwaukee fits that bill perfectly. There won't be a ton of competion from the legacy's or southwest. I hear people saying F9 would be a good match, but then AAI is going head to head with SWA and UAL. Why not go for Midwest, expand Milwaukee to the max capacity of the airport, and have a huge hub that could easily be protected. Even if the current proposal doesn't go through, I wouldn't be suprised to see AAI raise the bid again and keep fighting.