Evan Davis and James Fleckenstein flank Tom Bissa who was one of only three players to play in all four heats, but lost the Frequent Flyer Award to James' son.	Defending champ Kenny Rothstein finds the going not so easy against Virginia Melton - one of five flying Meltons - who finished third after five games.

With a banker's cash roll of "1", and several early recessions, cash was scarce during the early part of the game as the finalists jousting for the latest Air Baron title launched their fledgling empires from Norfolk, West Palm Beach, San Diego, Sacramento, and Indianapolis. The two West Coast players - Jimmy Fleckenstein in LA and Virginia Melton in San Francisco - battled each other as they tried to expand east, preventing either from gaining many hubs. Meanwhile, the East Coast players - Andy Gardner in Miami and Stephane Dorais from his early concentration in Atlanta - started their bids to expand northward as Kurt Miller spread through hubs in the Midwest and Northeast.

By mid-game, the cash crunch had eased for most players, fueled by a rapid increase in the value of the bid for contract and many high-value chit pulls. Stephane, aided by cash from chit draws of his dominant hubs of JFK and Atlanta, successfully moved north, gaining control of the New York, DCA and Detroit hubs. Andy tried to slow him with repeated attacks on Atlanta. Out west, Jim talked Virginia into halting attacks on him and deploying a Jumbo against Stephane in Norfolk - drawing the charge from Stephane that she was acting as a "meat puppet" for the interests of others. When a counterattack by Stephane expelled Virginia's Jumbo from Norfolk, Jim dropped his own Jumbo into it.

Stephane, seeing the other players uniting against him, went into fare wars and tried for market share wins first in Atlanta, which failed, and later in the Chicago hub, where he fell one spoke short of victory. The West Coast battle then resumed under cries of "Tucson has got to DIE" from Virginia as she ejected Jim from Phoenix. Kurt, having bided his time and hoarded cash in the Midwest, now retook Chicago, gained control of Houston and attacked Atlanta - making his own bid to win. Then it was Andy's turn for a big push as he finally completed the Miami-Atlanta-Houston southern triangle and established dominance in Dallas-Ft. Worth.

While there were potential opportunities for several players to win, Lady Luck intervened and two quick chit pulls of JFK totaling $54 sealed the game for Stephane as he went into fare wars one last time and grabbed three spokes in the Chicago hub giving him dominant market share there and a win with a score of 341 for his first WBC championship. Andy was second with 255, followed by Virginia with 208, Jim with 161 and Kurt with 55 in a game where the dreaded Fuel Hike never showed its face - even though it was the third disaster placed in the cup.

The Frequent Flyer award went to Jimmy Fleckenstein who played in all four heats and both elimination games to log a maximum six games in the air. GM Scott Fenn and Tom Bissa also flew in all four heats but were unable to advance to the Final.

Bruce Bernard, Erica Kirchner and Rob Sohn take on Evan Davis, the game's designer in semi-final action!	Finalists Andy Gardner, Virginia Melton, Stephane Dorais, GM Scott Fenn, Jimmy Fleckenstein, and Kurt Miller.