This is Alan Moon's game from a few years ago, published by Abacus Spiele and imported by Rio Grande.

Airlines is a bit like a Acquire and Moon's later game Reibach & Co/Get the Goods. There are nine companies each turn you can expand either:

start a new company
expand the route network any existing company
lay down stock from your hand.

After you expand or start a company you may select a share of company stock from a choice of 5 shares (or you can draw a face down one instead.) However, stock is worthless as long as it is in your hand and you will have to spend a turn "dropping" stock (laying it face up from your hand) in one company. And when you drop stock, you cannot get a new share.

Your companies are scored four times during the game--three times when "wertung" (scoring) cards are drawn from the stock deck and when the stock deck is exhausted at the end of the game.

If you have the most stock in a particular company, you score 1 pt. per token it has (larger companies are better). If you second most, you get half that amount. (Think Acquire Majority share holder bonuses.)

The components are pretty good (bright and colorful with stork motif--don' t ask why, I don't know.) though the game would be more fun with either real airlines and/or if the map conformed more closely to real geography.

Overall, I like the game, but prefer Acquire. To me I find it very easy to figure out when to drop stock. And the companies I try to dominate sometimes are more picked for me (because other players started it first) or forced on me by the selection of cards.