Fewer flights make connections difficult when bumped
By Dan Reed, USA Today
Lots of luck catching another flight if you’ve been bumped or miss a connection.
Commercial airlines in the USA have never been as full. Seven of them — Delta, American, United, Continental, US Airways, AirTran and Alaska — reported filling at least 87 percent of their seats in July.
Even Southwest, always the industry’s laggard in load factor, beat the industry’s average over the previous six Julys of 84.6 percent by filling 84.9 percent of its seats.
At Reno-Tahoe International Airport, load factor data for June — the most recent available — showed was 80.7 percent across all airlines. The fullest flights were Delta Airlines, with a total load factor of 90.1 percent for the month of June, followed by American Airlines at 89.6 percent. The lowest load factor was by Southwest, at 67.3 percent.
