All quiet on the eastern front as diplomacy foils a counter-strike

Loose cannons are not very precise weapons, and all but useless when aimed at aircraft. They do, however, make a great deal of noise and are capable of shattering glass at corporate offices.

The ordnance launched on July 2 from this column in the direction of KLM and Northwest Airlines drew quite a bit of return fire - but not all of it was unfriendly.

'KLM ignores their loyal customers in Hong Kong, shovels us into the Northwest points system, and now again ignores us in their tie-up with Air France,' a Dutch shipping executive wrote. 'I recently sent KLM some feedback by email, written in Dutch. I received a note from the Northwest response centre in China, asking me to translate my remarks into English. I refused.' The executive's complaint has since been resolved 'to his satisfaction'.

A salvo from a Northwest loyalist was decidedly more hostile.

'Northwest blows any European airline right out of the sky,' wrote 'Yankee27' in an anonymous email, adding that Northwest cabin's crew had always treated him 'like a king'. The correspondent employed several additional firepower metaphors to drive home his point, prompting Loose Cannon to review his personal security arrangements.

A more diplomatic missive arrived from KLM general manager for Central East Asia Adriaan den Heijer and Northwest Hong Kong general manager Gilbert Chow.

'The newly formed relationship between Air France and KLM has not changed the [Northwest-KLM] partnership,' they wrote. 'All Detroit-Amsterdam flights are now operated with [new] Airbus A330-300s. The coach seat is newly designed, the widest in our fleet, and features a state-of-the-art seatback in-flight entertainment system not offered by any other US airline.'