Quote:
Originally Posted by lurkette
I have a theory: The system has been pared down to its bare "just-in-time" essentials, which makes it incredibly fragile. If one plane is late it ripples - the aircraft isn't there to take the next flight; the crew is now late for its next trip, or over their allotted operating time, so they can't fly; the gate assignments are all fucked up. In the case of cancellations, it can take days to get all the passengers home flying standby on full or overbooked flights.
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Yes, your theory is sound. I can recall flying several times when the plane would be no more than half full. Not any longer. The airline industry is experiencing some of its highest load factors ever. There's less unused capacity on flights to absorb passengers from other cancelled or delayed flights. And that's not about to change, soon or anytime at all. There's no way a flight can be profitable when there are significant number of empty seats. I can recall hearing shortly after 9-11 when the airlines were all heading into bankruptcy that the industry had a cumulative operating loss since its inception. Not just one airline, the entire industry! I think they have finally wised up a little and started running it like a business. I hope as my son is a commercial pilot.