BY THE DREARY STANDARDS of America’s airlines, things are looking up. The six biggest carriers cut their 2002 losses of $7.4 billion to a mere $5.3 billion last year, and some may actually be in the black this year–if we ignore pension obligations. United Airlines remains a bankrupt, US Air recently emerged from bankruptcy but is again chalking up large losses, and Delta reports that a cash hemorrhage has left it with a balance sheet “severely damaged to the point of exhaustion.” Its management is asking the pilots to cut their pay by 30 percent; the pilots reply that their contract guarantees them a 4.5 percent raise next month.

Things in the international market are a bit cheerier. Traffic at the seven U.K. airports run by BAA (formerly British Airports Authority) in March was up 10 percent on the war-depressed, year-earlier total. The same was true at other airports around Europe. So some European carriers have moved from the intensive care unit into the wards, and others have been discharged from the hospital with a warning to change their lifestyles so as to avoid readmission.