3 ms·

So if fares were higher airlines would spend that money on nearly always unused planes sitting somewhere? Not quite sure that's what happens. Ryanair in Europe

So if fares were higher airlines would spend that money on nearly always unused planes sitting somewhere? Not quite sure that's what happens. Ryanair in Europe must run at one of the highest load factors (over 95% compared to American Airlines 80%). Ryanair also has some of the lowest cancellation/delays in Europe too. They had a fair few 737 MAX in service but don't seem to be suffering from mass cancellations as far as I can tell.

jdsully 7y ago
Seems to be what they used to do prior to deregulation and to a lesser extent in the 90s/2000s. Every flight being full is a more recent phenomena and they are getting better at it over time [1]. When flights aren't full you can pull a plane out of its normal route and fly those passengers on the later one. [1] https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/2018/02/01/airlines-set-record-filling-seats-planes-2017/1087532001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/...