If you’ve noticed fewer empty seats on your flight and more people trying to get their bags in the overheads, you’ve seen the passenger-facing side of the airlines’ success at selling more seats without flying too many more planes.
That’s part of what’s contributed to record profits for many airlines, that and a good haul from ‘ancillary fees.’ World-wide, the average ‘load-factor’ (percent of seats sold) was up to 81.4%, nearly a full point above the year before, according to International Air Transport Association (IATA), a trade association of 280 airlines.
That growth came despite the airlines having 6.3% more seats to sell. Demand, a measure of the average distance passengers fly, grew 7.6%, including 4% in North America. U.S. airlines hit 82.54% in load factor, with figures about 2% higher for domestic flights and 2% lower for international. Load-factor champ for the year was India, at 89.3%
But, happy as the airlines are, they see possibly cloudy skies as fuel prices rise, leading them to either raise prices or take a hit in their profits. Past experience suggests the former comes first, and the latter only if they can’t sell the seats.
