Every other carrier that competed with them picked up the pace. They profoundly misunderstood the competitive response. They were doomed from day one.

It was always a bad concept and never made sense. None of the big carriers would give up seat capacity. They matched them on every route. Even with their own bankruptcy problems, all three major airlines had more financial resources than tiny Independence.

You have an entirely different industry with oil below $50 a barrel and with oil above $60.

American will have a tough time in 2006, it all depends where the price of oil goes.

We had stages where we picked up the pace of our play. But we've got too many things going against us, and our margin of error is too thin to have to play the game that way. We need to be on point with everything we do, on every single possession, especially in this league.

Sometimes I can be misunderstood. I'm really competitive.