A plan to repurchase $50 million worth of Alaska Air Group stock was been approved by the airline holding group's board, the company announced today.

Alaska Air Group is the SeaTac-based holding company for Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air.

The repurchase plan comes at a time when the company's stock has fallen to about half of what it sold for late last year.

The company's stock price rose nearly 5 percent today to $16.36 a share. The stock's 52-week high is $30.95 a share.

The company suspended a stock buyback program last year amid sharply rising fuel prices that put a strain on airlines' cash balances.

The repurchases will come from cash on hand.

Bill Ayer, the airline's chairman, said the program will reward stockholders without threatening the airline's cash situation.

Fuel prices have dropped dramatically since last summer, but have risen again moderately from their lows last December.

Stock buyback programs are designed to enhance stock prices by reducing the number of public shares outstanding.

A week away from Father’s Day, here’s a look at how Americans plan to celebrate June 21 – by the numbers – thanks to the National Retail Federation and the U.S. Census Bureau.

64.3 million – Fathers in America
$90.89 – average amount expected to be spent per father to celebrate in 2009
9,003 – men’s clothing stores in America (if you’re looking for a tie)
$1.3 billion – amount expected to be spent on clothing gifts
23,270 – sporting goods stores in America (maybe he’d like a fishing pole)
$502 million – amount expected to be spent on sporting goods
78 million – Americans who participated in a barbecue over the last year
140,000 – stay-at-home dads in America
2.9 million – preschoolers who are cared for by dads while moms work
1.8 million – single fathers in the U.S. in 2008
8 percent – of those fathers were raising three or more children under 18
51 percent – of those 1.8 million fathers were divorced; 25 percent were never married; 19 percent were separated; 5 percent were widowed
43 percent – of the 1.8 million single fathers earned more than $50,000
31 percent – of custodial fathers (a total of 678,000) were due child support
43 percent – of custodial fathers received all due child support (about the same percentage as custodial mothers)
$6,210 – amount those fathers individually received, on average, in 2005
53 percent – of children under 6 who daily ate breakfast with their fathers in 2006
71 percent – of childrren under 6 who likewise ate dinner
6 – average number of times children aged 3 to 5 were read to by a father during a week in 2006

Regular gasoline prices in the Tacoma area are on an up elevator these days with average prices rising more than 3 cents a gallon just since Thursday.

While that trend is troubling, average regular unleaded prices here remain nearly 20 cents below the $3-a-gallon level according to tacomagasprices.com.

And while experts think there's a good chance that gas may top $3 a gallon here before summer's over, there's almost no chance that they'll be anywhere near what we saw last summer.

At this time last year, in fact, average regular gas prices in the Tacoma area were $4.275 a gallon, more than $1.47 a gallon higher than now.

And bargain hunters can still find regular gas available for less than $2.60 a gallon at several ARCO and Costco stations in the area.

Blame the rise in crude oil prices, which hit an 8-month high Thursday at more than $72 a barrel. But prices have retreated modestly since then.

No one in the industry expects prices to hit the $140 a barrel level that they did in mid-summer last year.

Gas prices have mirrored the economy's steep drop and halting recovery.

Take a look at the steep fall off in Tacoma prices beginning in mid-summer last year and the seasonal, but partial recovery shown in this chart of Tacoma gas prices over the last two years.