by "Dave Stadt" Mar 21, 2006 at 03:37 PM

Don't they use passenger miles? It gives them a big number which looks
impressive.



You are getting into an area I had some (former) professional expertise
in: they use passenger miles, passenger revenue miles, boardings as their
primary operational statistics. Passenger revenue miles is a primary
metric they use to determine fare structures (it measures only paying
customers) and usage.