Something you'll never read in a Delta news release:

Delta lost $36.60 per passenger in January.

On March 3, the company reported a $300 million loss for the month. On Feb. 3, it reported boarding 8.24 million passengers in January.

You'll find all kinds of ratios reported in those news releases:

• yield (revenue per passenger mile)
• revenue per available seat mile
• cost per available seat mile
• earnings/loss per share
• average load factor (revenue passenger miles per available seat miles)

But you'll never see "loss per passenger" quoted in an airline's investor-relations news release.

Why? Because it's a pseudo stat. It doesn't tell an investor anything worth knowing. So why do Amtrak critics continue to cite "loss per passenger" in their news releases?