What metric measures how efficiently an airline fills its seats?

• A. Pitch
• B. PNR
• C. Open-skies policy
• D. Passenger load factor

Answer: (D)

The main idea here is how airlines measure how well they use their seating capacity. The metric is the passenger load factor, which represents the proportion of available seats that are actually filled by revenue passengers. It’s usually expressed as a percentage and can be thought of as occupancy efficiency for a given flight or period.

Load factor is calculated by comparing the seats that are sold to the total seats available, in terms of revenue passenger miles versus available seat miles. A higher load factor means a greater share of seats are being utilized, which helps spread fixed costs over more passengers and can improve profitability, though it must be balanced with pricing and demand to avoid negative yields.

Pitch, PNR, and open-skies policy refer to seat spacing, booking records, and regulatory frameworks, respectively, and do not directly measure how fully a flight’s seats are utilized.