116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Airlines flying virtually full planes
CEDAR RAPIDS - If you're thinking of taking a last-minute flight over the holidays, you may find there are no seats available during the busy morning and evening hours.
The nation's airlines are flying virtually full planes, which has returned them to profitability but causes headaches for anyone who has not booked their tickets in advance.
'In October, our overall average load factor (the percentage of filled and available seats) was 85.2 percent. That's up from 82.4 percent in October last year,” said Heather Wilson, director of marketing and communications for The Eastern Iowa Airport.
Nationally, the average load factor reached 84.1 percent for domestic and international flights for the period from January through August, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
'The airlines have gotten very good matching the number of seats to demand,” Wilson said. 'One of the benefits to the airlines is profitability. When they were flying with a 40 percent load factor, they were not profitable.
'With the high cost of jet fuel, I have heard that the load factor on a 50-seat regional jet has to be above 80 percent for the airline to break even on a given flight.”
U.S. airlines posted a combined $3.6 billion in profits in the period from April through June, a 64 percent increase over a year earlier, according to federal data.
Wilson said the higher average load factor means fewer empty seats for last-minute travelers.
'It's very hard to get a last-minute seat during high-volume times like early morning or late evening,” Wilson said. 'If you can fly during the middle of the day, there is some additional capacity available.”
Airlines serving Cedar Rapids have responded to increased demand, adding more seats using larger, more fuel-efficient aircraft, according to Wilson. But the number of flights has actually declined 3 percent.
That makes it more difficult to switch if a flight to or from the community is missed or canceled.
'This is the direction that the industry is going,” Wilson said.
The Gazette Ellaysa Newton (left) and Alexandra Stewart of Waterloo walk through The Eastern Iowa Airport with other passengers returning from the Thanksgiving holiday in 2010. Airlines are flying virtually full planes, making it more difficult to travel early in the day or late evening without booking it in advance.
Liz Martin/The Gazette A passenger takes off his jacket before going through security at The Eastern Iowa Airport on Feb. 5 in Cedar Rapids. The airlines are flying virtually full planes, making an advance booking preferable if traveling early in the day or late evening.
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