"U.S. airlines leave fewer seats unfilled"

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Airlines leave few seats unfilled
USA TODAY


Most of the nation's biggest airlines operated their planes fuller last
month than in any previous March, virtually snuffing out hope among
passengers for an empty middle seat to sprawl across.

American, Delta, Continental and United last week each reported their
highest-ever percentages of filled seats for March. 

US Airways, the product of a late-2005 merger, filled a higher percentage of
seats last month than in March 2006, the only comparable month. Northwest
was close to a record March. Each airline ran more than 80 percent full on
average, meaning that many flights on the most popular routes at the most
popular times ran full.

As the big airlines have clawed their way out of the deep financial losses
that followed terrorism and recession earlier in the decade, they've
aggressively moved to fill every seat possible with a paying passenger. In
March, spring break vacationers and bad weather jammed even more people than
normal into planes.

"The weather impact has been unusual in early 2007," says Tim Wagner of
American Airlines.

Due to cancellations, airlines had to consolidate passengers on fewer planes
than initially planned. Planes were so full that passengers waited days to
be rebooked on other flights.

Chris Romano, a high-mileage business traveler from South Riding, Va.,
waited 16 hours after a storm knocked his planned Friday, March 16, trip
from Charleston, S.C., to Washington Dulles off track. Fellow passengers
heading for New York were told they faced the possibility of waiting until
Monday to get out, Romano said.

No. 2 United reported the highest percentage of filled seats among big
carriers: 85 percent. The timing of the Easter holiday may have affected the
number, said United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski. Some early Easter-related
travel appeared to fall into late March, she said.

Packed planes in March may signal a continuation of uncomfortably full
planes during the summer, when they're typically most crowded. American, for
instance, reached its highest system-wide load factor for any month (87
percent) last July, Wagner says.

Not all airlines saw fuller planes in March. Discounters Southwest and
JetBlue filled a smaller percentage seats of in March than a year earlier.

Last month, Southwest filled 73.3 percent of seats, versus the March record
of 75.5 percent in 2006, says Marilee McInnis, an airline spokeswoman man.
She attributes the slip to an increase in the number of available seats on
Southwest and to softer travel demand than in 2006.

Travelers have taken note of the increasingly crowded planes and have tried
to cover themselves by booking earlier, says Amy Ziff of online travel
seller Travelocity.

Domestic travelers, for instance, bought their tickets on Travelocity an
average of 34 days in advance of departure this year, versus 33 days last
year, she says.

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