He understands the math just fine as do I. We are just wondering where all the partially empty flights are. I fly over 100 times a year mostly out of Boston or Providence. RI and almost all of them are 100% full and usually overbooked. The only flight that I can recall in the last year that wasn’t completely full was a bush plane in Costa Rica.
We all understand there are some routes that are consistently less than full but they aren’t generally where I am flying. It is a legitimate question to ask. There may be some less profitable routes out there that bring the overall averages down but that doesn’t mean that people flying out of some cities will get to experience them regularly especially if they only fly to popular destinations. Computerized yield management has done wonders to help the airlines fill every seat even if it takes deep discounts for last minute travelers.
Say the load factor is 80%. 60% of flights are 100% full, 40% are half full.
Say there are 100 flights and 100 people on a full flight.
How many people on full flights? 60 * 100 or 6,000.
How many on half full flights? 40 * 50 or 2,000.
So, while there are only 50% more full flights than half full flights, there are three times more people on them.
Good point. However they fly big planes on routes and times that are more likely to be full, so that increases the perception of fullness that I mention.
I don’t know if the numbers are for the US or for everyone, but my daughter works in the airline business, in Germany, and gets low cost travel on standby. Word is that trying to fly in the US is almost certainly going to be futile, however it is a lot easier within Europe. She can see load numbers for one airline, and they are not always 100%.