Cruise lines have done something similar. Shareholders in Carnival and Royal Caribbean can get a sihpboard credit on cruises for owning at least 100 shares. It takes a bit of work; you have to fax in a copy of a brokerage statement proving ownership. Still, it works out pretty nicely.

Implementing this for an airline would be tricky. To have the airline hand out miles to every shareholder wouldn't work. You would end up with mutual funds sitting on mountains of unusable miles.

Perhaps a program where shareholders could earn double or triple miles on flights could be implemented. You would have to go through the headache of proving you own a sufficient number of shares every time you fly.

The idea has merit, I just can't quite see how it gets implemented.