This week’s newsletter from David Rowell is uniquely good, so I’m going to reproduce some interesting snippets:

VS also enjoy having provocative slogans on the side of their planes. Not long ago, they had the slogan ‘Ours is Longer’ painted on their new A340 planes – presumably referring to the fact that the A340-600 is longer than a 747-400. And now they are painting the slogan “BA Can’t Keep It Up” on the side of its aircraft, – presumably referring to BA’s refusal to sell the Concordes to Virgin. VS will keep the slogan until the Concorde ceases flying in October.


…


Delta..has announced that it will eliminate its quarterly dividend, while forecasting a loss of $200 – $250 million in the upcoming third quarter.


…


Russia’s Aeroflot announced a net profit for 2002 of $89.3 million, compared to $20.1 million in 2001.


…


This Week’s Security Horror Story : Airport security killed 629 people last year? It has become conventional wisdom to accept that the hassles associated with airport security are discouraging people from flying, and forcing increased people onto the roads. With airfares lower than they have been for several years, the inconvenience of air travel has to be one of the factors that has brought about fewer people traveling by air, but more people driving the roads.


This week the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration advised that road fatalities increased by 629 last year. The number of fatalities per mile driven has remained constant at a historically low level, but the total traffic increased, and so too did the number of road deaths. Draw your own conclusions.