Originally Posted by
Michael El
Maybe the insiders can answer a question? Why wouldn't a plane heading to the shop for upgrades etc. haul passengers? Wouldn't it be more cost effective for the airline to sell seats on a plane to recoup fuel and other costs? Fill 200 seats on a 763 to Hong Kong at a grand a piece = $200,000.
It is generally hard to sell a random one-off flight at anything remotely resembling full price. Even more difficult without cannibalizing your other operations. And it means you have to know well in advance exactly which date it is going in, with no margin for shifting maintenance schedules since that would mean accommodating 200ish passengers. And you would then have to crew the flight and get all the crew back out of town eventually.
Plenty of reasons not to bother with passengers on the plane.