Northwest's "loss per passenger" $67 last quarter

That's a $1.179 billion loss divided by 17.6 million passengers boarded in the months of July, August and September.

Of course you'll never see a pseudo stat like "loss per passenger" in a Northwest news release or a stock analyst's commentary, and for a very simple reason: It doesn't tell you anything worth knowing. So why do people in the anti-Amtrak crowd still push it?