Therefore, the energy per passenger-mile can vary significantly from peak to non-peak times.

Company executives said that the losses for the two months reflected lower revenue per passenger-mile, which they attributed to discount fares.

Most of us travel to get to a destination, with the important factor being the safest way of getting there, or fatality rate per passenger-mile.

These high-paying passengers help give Pan Am higher yields, or revenues per passenger-mile, on those routes.

For bus and rail transit, the energy per passenger-mile depends on the ridership and the frequency of service.

Even with negligible energy costs, the Vancouver area SkyTrain system is by far the most expensive at $2.65 per passenger-mile.

Continental had an average revenue yield last year of slightly more than 11 cents a passenger-mile, compared with about 13.5 cents for its competitors, he said.

The number of deaths per passenger-mile on commercial airlines in the United States between 1995 and 2000 was about 3 deaths per 10 billion passenger-miles.

Compared to advanced piston engine airliners of the 1950s, current jet airliners are only marginally more efficient per passenger-mile.

A bus or train uses half as much energy per passenger-mile, or less, and cuts carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon pollution by substantially more than half.

The financial performance of VIA showed a moderate improvement in passenger revenues and significant increases in ratios of revenues per passenger-mile and revenues per seat-mile.

Each motorized trip that is switched to cycling or walking avoids releasing 2.6 grams of hydrocarbon, 20 grams of carbon dioxide and 1.6 grams of nitrogen oxide per passenger-mile.

"However, especially in the case of the domestic carriers," he said, "some of this growth came at the expense of yield," which is revenue per passenger-mile, because of the recession and the airlines' ruinous fare wars.

The Agency, therefore, has examined the evolution of the performance statistics of VIA that are independent of the level of operations and notes that over the period of 1989 to 1992, VIA increased its average yield expressed in terms of revenues per passenger-mile and per seat-mile.