It's a little difficult to make that assumption based on flights between 2 cities on a single day.

Just the one day (and I didn't want to start a new thread). Half of our flights are EWR-IAH or IAH-EWR and we're seeing pretty full loads there as well.

End of spring break week in Houston.

I flew to Boston from EWR yesterday and watched 122 to CPH board. I guess I may be sensitized to the slowdown, but the boarding process surprised me. BusinessFirst was called: nobody boarded; after a pause, elite status was described and those that fitted the bill were invited to board: one person boarded. I can't imagine that the front cabin was completely empty, but I found the boarding process a little sad for CO.

One flight does not describe the carrier. Here's a rather telling figure from the CO Investor Relations site:
MTD Load Factor 82.7%*
*Month to date consolidated Load Factor through Apr. 28, 2009

That's actually pretty good for CO. No idea what the yields are on those loads and we all know that loads aren't the only thing that matters, but the numbers for April actually aren't all that horrible.

Looking at the seat map now for 122 yesterday (EWR-CPH):
10/16 BF EMPTY
47/135 Y EMPTY

I looked at tonight's flight and it's a pretty stark contrast:
7/16 BF Empty
1/135 Empty

Fortunately not as drastic as it originally seemed

I've only seen low loads in the intra Texas flying, everywhere else is looking good.

I don't know what normal loads are in the 737's in TX I dont have a pre 2009 track record of flying anything but SAABs or RJs around here :)

We're MSY-IAH-EWR on Tuesday. We're 1/7 IAH-EWR EWR-IAH since mid-March.

The comment was about one flight only. A load factor is just one piece of the puzzle--there are ways to bump a load factor up that wouldn't be healthy for the carrier.

Yes - and given some of the relatively cheap fares out there as the summer travel season approaches, the $$$ side does not look as good.

I'm on a psuedo MR next weekend with my daughter SJO-IAH-LAX-IAH-SJO to get in one more trip for her before the DEQM offer expires. I checked the same flights leaving this week, one week earlier, to see what our chances of upgrade would be for a Plat and Silver. CO 1485 left SJO this morning with only 7/16 seats occupied in FC and the back of the plane only about half full (including exit rows!) They can't even sell the upgrades it seems.

Granted, this is usually an easy upgrade to snag, but two weeks ago on the same Friday flight the Gold in our group did not clear although the Plat and Plat Companion did. I am also sure that somehow a US holiday weekend may be affecting the loads from outside the US also.

I forgot about this topic, but my last flights have indeed been low on the number of fliers compared to the sardine packed flights before. But I am picking different flight times like the insane 6am flights now...

I know its not CO but on a recent flight on CM from EZE-PTY there were about 4 empty seats on F and the total number of PAX was 48

I am sure the swine flu 'panic' is responsible on top of the economic situation

To be fair, as a CO elite who prefers aisle seating, I like to board at the end, since I'm usually only carrying my laptop.

Well, that explains one passenger! ;)