Obviously global demand for travel is way down. Not only are most airlines canceling a majority of their flights, but even those flights that are still operating are quite empty.
For example, United has indicated that even after canceling flights, they expect most flights to be 20-30% full. Well, it looks like that may have been super optimistic (and that makes me happy that people are staying home, even if it is putting the economy on pause).
Just how empty are United Airlines flights?
Monday morning is usually a peak travel time, so how full are flights this morning? This is especially interesting to look at for domestic flights, given that there aren’t any government restrictions at the moment on flying domestically within the US. Rather there’s just social shame for anyone who chooses to take a flight unnecessarily, as there should be. 😉
It’s easiest to use United as an example for how full flights are, because United is the only one of the “big three” US carriers that publishes seatmaps on their website even after flights leave.
They show these details on the “flight status” section, so it’s easy to figure out just how empty flights are. I assume other airlines are equally empty, but United just makes it easiest for us to figure out these details.
@AirlineFlyer notes just how empty one flight is from New York to Chicago (Jason has provided some awesome coverage throughout all of this), so I figured it would be interesting to look at a wide array of flights, to see just how empty they are.
In no particular order, here are the details (and keep in mind this is after many flights have been canceled, and presumably flights have largely been consolidated):
Newark to Los Angeles
This morning’s 6AM Newark to Los Angeles flight was canceled, while the 7AM flight was operated by a 787-10. How full was that flight, UA240?
- 6/44 business class seats were taken
- 0/21 premium economy seats were taken
- 11/45 extra legroom economy seats were taken
- 17/199 economy seats were taken
That means there were 34 passengers on a plane with 309 seats, meaning the flight had an ~11% load factor.
San Francisco to Newark
This morning’s 6AM San Francisco to Newark flight was canceled, while the 7:15AM flight was operated by a 787-10. How full was that flight, UA577?
- 10/44 business class seats were taken
- 0/21 premium economy seats were taken
- 0/45 extra legroom economy seats were taken
- 27/199 economy seats were taken
That means there were 37 passengers on a plane with 309 seats, meaning the flight had a ~12% load factor.
New York LaGuardia to Chicago
This morning’s 6AM LaGuardia to Chicago flight was canceled, while the 7AM flight was operated by an A319. How full was that flight, UA600?
- 2/12 first class seats were taken
- 1/36 extra legroom economy seats were taken
- 11/78 economy seats were taken
That means there were 14 passengers on a plane with 126 seats, meaning the flight had an ~11% load factor.
Chicago to Newark
This morning’s 6:05AM Chicago to Newark flight was operated by an A319. How full was that flight, UA636?
- 8/12 first class seats were taken
- 4/36 extra legroom economy seats were taken
- 2/78 economy seats were taken
That means there were 14 passengers on a plane with 126 seats, meaning the flight had an ~11% load factor.
Boston to San Francisco
This morning’s 6AM Boston to San Francisco flight was operated by a 757-200. How full was that flight, UA433?
- 2/16 business class seats were taken
- 0/45 extra legroom economy seats were taken
- 7/108 economy seats were taken
That means there were nine passengers on a plane with 169 seats, meaning the flight had a ~5% load factor.
San Francisco to Los Angeles
This morning’s 6:44AM San Francisco to Los Angeles flight was operated by an A320. How full was that flight, UA504?
- 7/12 first class seats were taken
- 7/42 extra legroom economy seats were taken
- 7/96 economy seats were taken
That means there were 21 passengers on a plane with 150 seats, meaning the flight had a ~14% load factor.
Bottom line
This must be an absolute bloodbath for airlines. But kudos to most people for staying home, at least…
The above are literally just flights I randomly chose without an agenda. It seems that on average flights are more like ~10% full, rather than ~20-30% full.
Bonus points to anyone who can either find a nearly full domestic United flight, or one that operated but is even emptier than the above!
Are you surprised by how empty United flights are?
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