Passenger load factor

Passenger load factor, or load factor, measures the capacity utilization of public transport services like airlines, passenger railways, and intercity bus services. It is generally used to assess how efficiently a transport provider "fills seats" and generates fare revenue.

According to the International Air Transport Association, the worldwide load factor for the passenger airline industry during 2013 was 79.5%.[1]

Calculation example

Specifically, the load factor is the dimensionless ratio of passenger-kilometres travelled to seat-kilometres available. For example, say that on a particular day an airline makes 5 scheduled flights, each of which travels 200 kilometers and has 100 seats, and sells 60 tickets for each flight. To calculate its load factor:

\frac{(5\ flights)(200\ km)(60\ passengers)}{(5\ flights)(200\ km)(100\ seats)} = \frac{60,000\ passenger \cdot km }{100,000\ seat\cdot km} = 0.6 = 60\%

Thus, during that day the airline flew 60,000 passenger-kilometres and 100,000 seat-kilometres, for an overall load factor of 60% (0.6).

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Passenger Demand Maintains Historic Growth Rates in 2013". International Air Transport Association. 6 February 2014. Retrieved 7 April 2014.

External links