Good evening everyone. This week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted.

This week we’re talking a lot about Southwest Airlines and the follow-up to the recent comments made by CFO Tammy Romo at the Wolfe Research Transportation Conference that sent shares of U.S. airline stocks tumbling.

For those of you who missed the excitement, Tammy indicated in her comments there that the airline was going to see capacity up between 7% and 8% for the year. This was above what the airline had said was the case in its 1Q15 call, (the airline had said a flat 7%), and given the backdrop at the time, i.e., American Airlines management was sounding alarm bells over the possibility of the industry pushing out too much capacity, that is all it took.

Investors shed shares of airline stocks like crazy two weeks ago as a result.

Last week, the madness slowed, but U.S. airline stocks were still struggling.

This week we go in-depth about what the airline told institutional investors at a Credit Suisse meeting in Dallas last Friday,  followed up by an additional interview with Bloomberg that broke earlier today. (Monday.)

Long and the short? Southwest went on the offensive. To the extent that the airline said it was now capping growth at 7% and it will announce an increase to its ROIC shortly.

Wrap it up and what do we have? We had, over the last two weeks, a perfect time to buy shares of U.S. airline stocks. Particularly the big four.

Perception. It’s the name of the game.

This week we also talk about the recent “all-women” delivery flight involving United Airlines and Boeing; we look at the deal that the Irish government gave the okay to this week — allowing IAG Holdings to purchase Aer Lingus;  we give you the latest scoop on why oil prices continue to inch up;  we talk about a couple of new executive appointments;  we talk about the recent forum in Seattle where Alaska Airlines’ CEO Brad Tilden admits the airline was  “shocked” at the actions of Delta Air Lines over the last few years, and a whole lot more.

All of this, and more, in this week’s edition of PlaneBusiness Banter.