Dan Akins Joins MergeGlobal Team

Arlington, VA, July 18, 2005 – MergeGlobal announced today that Daniel W. Akins has joined the firm as a Principal Advisor. Mr. Akins brings an extensive experience in airline financial analysis, demand forecasting, and contract analysis.

With over twenty years advising clients in the commercial airline industry, Mr. Akins has provided detailed air transport demand forecasts and economic impact analysis for both US and foreign airports. He has also represented passenger and air cargo carriers, focusing principally on international route applications under the auspices of bilateral treaties.

Recently, Mr. Akins has been a financial advisor to several organized labor groups in several airline restructurings, including, American, Continental, Northwest, US Airways, United, and Hawaiian. He remains deeply involved in supporting ongoing labor negotiations at several carriers.

Mr. Akins is a graduate of the London School of Economics where he specialized in Transport Economics.

MergeGlobal provides clients a continuum of services ranging from financial advisory to strategic consulting. Our financial consulting practice combines finance expertise with deep industry knowledge to significantly improve shareholder value for clients in the global travel, transport and logistics industries. The MergeGlobal strategy consulting practice focuses on developing competitive strategy for companies in similar industries. Our approach is highly quantitative and hypothesis-driven. We have completed over 200 engagements for clients in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Our industry experience spans all modes of transportation, logistics and suppliers to the industry.