What percent of the seats available on the aircraft do airlines attempt to sell?

Question

They can be overbooked, but by what percentage, 110%, 115%? Does it vary according to the route or popularity, or by the fare class sold (discount economy v. full fare, etc)?

Does anyone have an actual answer?

Answer 1

They try to sell 100%.

Often a flight will be declared full a week or 2 before the flight, this is generally due to block bookings by travel agents that release the unsold seats at a set date before the flight, if your name is on a waitlist you will be assigned one of these seats when the deadline for confirmation is reached (usually a week or 2 before departure).

The Airlines withhold a number of seats for frequent flyer members and direct sales and the unsold are released to the waiting list 48 hours before departure, unsold seats 2 hours before departure are released to stanby passengers, if all goes well the plane will be 98-100% full.

If demand for seats exceeds available seats, frequent flyer members are usually upgraded to business class (if seats are available) to release more economy class seats.

An Airline should never plan to sell over 100% of the available seats as in many countries this would be illegal as they would be selling a service they cannot provide and deposits are non-refundable.

Answer 2

The airlines overbook flights based on the no show factor of that flight's history. Sometimes, all the passengers show up and they have to "bump" people off the flight. That means they airline will either get the last few people who checked in or or the last few people who purchased tickets. Most airlines will ask for volunteers first and they will issue some type of reward for volunteers, like a travel voucher or a free ticket. Then they put those people on a later flight. Seasoned travelers book these flights intentionally in hopes of getting a reward when they are flexible with their travel times. Sometimes, there are still seats left to sell but you are not able to choose a seat assignment because those seats are under airport control. That means they hold a percentage of seats until departure day because they may have passengers with special needs, families, etc. There is a difference between flights being over sold versus not having an assigned seat. Before you book your ticket on line, you can call the airline and ask them is the flight full or overbooked. Then, you can make a more informed purchasing decision. Those seats get released the day of the flight for all passengers.

Answer 3

How much an aircraft is overbooked depends on many things. Most importantly is the route and time of year. Airlines use historical data to set the overbooking limit. They know from past experience how many people typically no show a flight. For example routes from North America to Asia tend to have huge no show factors or duplicate bookings. These flights can be overbooked by as much as 50 percent. On the other hand flights such as Canada to Mexico in the winter or from the US to Italy in the summer have a high percentage of people on vacation who usually dont have the flexibility to make changes. These flights may only be overbooked by 5-10 percent or may not be overbooked at all.

Answer 4

I believe its about 110% overbooked normally.

Answer 5

It depends on the airline. Southwest lists 120% for sale. Some don't oversell at all.

Answer 6

They book about 110% because a lot of people don't show up.

Answer 7

How about 120%

Answer 8

110%

Answer 9

they try to sell as much as they can before last call

Answer 10

more than are actually on the plane. they count on people not showing