Airlines Keeping Flights Full

Filed in archive Aviation Travel on September 6, 2007

If you're trying to schedule one more last minute summer getaway, I think this article by Yahoo! News will help explain why your flight is extremely full or overbooked.

In an effort to capitalize on a busy summer season, airlines are keeping planes as full as possible. Which means, long ticket lines and bumped flights.

"These are the highest seasonal load factors you'll see except for several days around the holiday periods later this year," airline consultant Robert Mann said. "But what they're looking to do going into the fall and winter is constrain supply growth so as to maintain pricing power."

The airline industry grappled for years with a capacity glut caused by an influx of low-cost carriers.

Major hub-and-spoke airlines, blindsided by smaller, more agile competitors, sought to compete directly by adding flights, and subsequently won a lot of new customers.

While travelers were happy with the airlines' decision - the strategy drove down ticket prices - it exacerbated airline woes. Starting with the September 11, 2001, air attacks, the industry hemorrhaged money due to higher fuel prices, leading industry leaders like United, Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) and northwest airlines (NWA.N) to file for bankruptcy.

But in 2006, airlines made the call to cut capacity, fly fuller planes and begin a series of revenue-boosting fare increases.