Giving the shares back is the same thing as issuing new shares. Think of the point of this exercise: more than $1 billion in shares will have been repurchased by the end of this year. Market cap for LUV is around $12 billion. Let's call it close to 105 of outstanding shares will be removed from the market.
If they want to turn around and re-issue those shares to the market through option or employee purchase plans, you have to do the math to figure out if it counts. Divide the number of folks who choose to exercise options or purchase some company stock by $1 billion dollars and get back to me.
You need to spend some more time in the business books.
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