Originally Posted by
Beckles
Quite simply, the only reason WN (or any airline) makes money is because of those travellers paying full fare, whether they're traveling at the last minute or on a very high demand route.
That's not really true. A flight has a certain, essentially fixed, cost of flying. An airline that is breaking even on the flight needs the deeply-discounted passengers just as much as the full fare passenger then to break even. Obviously, the one person paying full fare contributes a bit more than one person paying the discounted fare, but the contribution of the numerous people paying the discounted fare is hardly zero...