Originally Posted by
AeroEnvoy
I was doing some research about 9/11 and I stumbled into something interesting unintentionally. I noticed that the flight loads for all four hijacked airplanes were less than 100 pax. The loads ranged from 30-100 and some of these aircraft were wide body flying trans con flights. I guess my question here is how did the airlines stay in business back then (Pre-9/11) flying loads so light and now that they’re back to flying similar loads they’re in a bankruptcy panic? Any ideas or insight?
Also, if you look more at the 9/11 attacks, the terrorists specifically chose those flight because they were known to be sparsely filled, trans-con flights that would be full of fuel. The biggest reason the were normally sparsely filled was they were early morning and the route required the range of a 75/76 instead of a smaller plane.
Also, I can’t say for sure, but those flights were on higher $ yield markets that would sell more first and business class that would cover the cost of otherwise empty coach class.