Originally Posted by
eponymous_coward
I'm actually going to bet against that, given my experiences so far in 2010, and given that AS is traditionally conservative on expanding capacity dramatically. I think we're likely to head north of 80% on load factors. It may be that AS figures that some IDBs and VDBs are the cost of doing that.
Yeah, technically VDBs and IDBs results from overselling of seats [based on data on % of people that does not show up for their flight], but that can be reduced by reducing the % of seats AS oversells per flight... Hard? No... Requires significant changes? No...
Or they could increase $$$ in compensation for VDBs to attract more volunteers to help reduce IDBs.
Of course, this comes with some complexities, because sometimes simply reducing the # of seats they oversell can result in some loss in potential revenues... They will need to weight the cost of doing VDBs and IDBs [including potential loss of future sales from customers who were involuntarily denied boarding] and the revenues lost when a plane leaves with 2 or 3 empty seats.