I recently got the last seat on a 50 seat CRJ going into foggy Eugene. I counted 47 aboard (3 empty seats). The reason the flight did not go out full was a weight restriction. I was surprised. The last time I had heard of a weight restriction was on a DC-10 in the 1990's. How could a modern jet have a weight restriction causing the airline to bump passengers?
Some possible reasons that I will note.
Runway length - Nope. SF has an 11,000ft runway and EUG has an 8,000ft runway.
Density altitude - No way. Both airports at sealevel, and temperatures of about 60 degrees.
Fuel on board - Possibly. It was so foggy in Eugene that we almost diverted to Portland. Maybe they carried a full load of fuel for a diversion.
Even with full fuel, shouldn't a CRJ be able to handle full passengers?
I talked with some Skywest employees that were telling me they have weight restrictions all the time on the Brasilia. This seems a little more logical, but still somewhat shocking.
For any CRJ or EMB-120 pilots, how often do you guys have weight restrictions? How long do those flights have to be to make you restricted? How many passengers do you typically bump? Is this a problem with the CRJ-700?
Thanks