PBB is done. Well, not done. It’s in final edits. But yours truly is done writing for the most part.

We should be posted in a couple of hours. It’s a long issue. Very tedious to edit those earnings call write-ups.

Writing about earnings calls is certainly not the most creative thing in the world, but it sure is fun to listen to the calls and see how much the participant’s personalities come through.

Case in point this week: Joe Leonard at AirTran. We all know Joe. Joe is not the shy and retiring type. Nothing warm and fuzzy about this guy.

This was certainly proven last week in AirTran’s call last week. Mostly silent throughout the bulk of the call, Joe came roaring out of hiding when analyst Jamie Baker from JP Morgan asked the airline’s CFO Stan Gadek, “Stan, you mentioned in some of your prepared remarks about raising the service bar. I was wondering if you’d be comfortable elaborating on that as it relates to the merger just given that Midwest [Airlines]is already so highly regarded it seems more likely than not that the local Milwaukee passengers would in fact witness some sort of a decline in what they’ve come to expect. Can you add anything to that?”

At that, the slumbering giant — that would be Joe — sprang into action with this rapidfire response:

“Well, yes, this is Joe. I mean we have business class on every single flight. We have XM Radio on every single flight. The fact of

the matter the MEH product offering is all over the place. I mean they have this image which they deserve, a very high-quality service and I hear about lobsters and they haven’t served lobsters in six years, and they have 2-by-2 seatings on less than half of their flights where we have 2-by-2 seating on every flight.

Is there a quality of service on 18 passenger Beech 1800s or is it Dornier 32 passenger RJs or is it 50 passenger RJs or is it’s all coach MD80s? So you know their product offering is all over the place quite frankly. I think their image there’s a lot of nostalgia in their image that doesn’t fully bear out. So we think that by putting our product in there and also they’ve done a better job of brand management than we have. Adopting some of the things that they do that we don’t would be the best of both worlds.”

Pause.

Jamie then added, “So maybe the mystique exceeds the reality. I guess you’d have to drink quite a bit for a chocolate chip cookie to look like a lobster. All right. Thanks for the color. I appreciate it. Good luck.”

Great stuff.

Talk to you again in a bit. Off to set up our subscriber e-mailings.

Ticker: (AMEX: MEH), (NYSE:AAI)