How we work

Every article on Vertical Brief is built from public documents and links its sources, so you can check the work yourself.

We start with the record

Most of what matters in this industry is written down somewhere: in a certification filing, a quarterly report, a court docket or a regulator’s notice. We read those documents first and report what they say, with the numbers and dates exactly as filed.

We use four kinds of source:

• Court filings: complaints, motions, orders and transcripts.
• SEC filings: annual and quarterly reports, shareholder letters and other disclosures.
• Regulator notices: records and announcements from the FAA, EASA and other aviation authorities.
• Company releases: what a company says about itself, which we treat as a claim rather than a fact.

Every claim has a number

Each factual claim in a piece carries a small number. It points to the Sources list at the bottom of the article, which names the document, says when we retrieved it and links to it where a public copy exists.

When a document leaves something open, we say so. We would rather tell you what is not known than fill the gap with a guess.

Market data

The market strip shows each listed company’s prior-day close and its change over one, 30 and 90 days. It is there for context. Nothing on Vertical Brief is investment advice.

Independence

[Independence policy: for example, that no company we cover pays for coverage or reviews a story before it runs. Confirm before publishing.]

When we get something wrong

We fix it and note the change at the bottom of the article. Our corrections page explains how, and lists every correction we have made.