My most recent flights have been full, but then again they were on RJs :( Last week I flew Southwest from Salt Lake City to Boise at 8:30 on Friday evening and there were only 50 people on a plane that can hold 137. Strange for a Friday evening flight as I have taken this flight several times before and it is usually full.

My flights out of DEN to west coast, UA and Frontier, have been full recently. If not already full they are filling with standbys.

My last few flights have been about 1/4 empty. It seems like a desert compared to flying over the past few years, but definitely not empty. These have been both transcons and midcons on AA.

Coming over the pond on NW, the plane was maybe 2/3 full and the preceding domestic leg was probably 80%. Hopping around Europe, I have been on Wizz Air twice and Ryan Air once, all of which were nearly full. At least the LCCs seem to be filling their planes.

I have a flight 12/03 and only two seats are showing available. Hoping for a bump! :D

I just booked a flight LAX-JFK for 12/2. ExpertFlyer shows Y7, but aa.com shows only one middle seat available. I'm praying for an upgrade

Late Jan-early Feb SEA to JFK -- lots of empty seats
 

I'm looking at flying from SEA to JFK on JetBlue (have to use some soon-to-expire JetBlue funds) from 01/30 - 02/03/09.

When I go through the reservation process and get to the seat selection pages, I find that only 20 seats are taken on the outbound flight, and only 15 seats are taken on the return flight. The plane has seats for 150 passengers.

This flight has typically been 90-100 percent full when we've taken JetBlue around this same time of year in past years. Now, I realize it's still two months out, but the current 10-14 percent occupancy rate seems mighty low. I'm holding off on making the reservations, hoping a fare deal becomes available if it looks like they're having trouble filling seats.

Anyway, that's my tidbit of information to add to the discussion...

(emphasis mine)

I think this is the key. Because airline Revenue Management units have changed the way that they handle pricing and inventory many folks have changed the way they purchase tickets. In the "good old days" tickets were always cheapest early on and very expensive at the end. These days tickets are generally expensive early on, get cheaper and then maybe get expensive again. Because of this advance purchase numbers seem to be generally lower in general.

I'm less surprised by the Tuesday return being empty than the Friday outbound.

Plus, a single trip doesn't a trend make.

my two recent JetBlue trips have been fairly packed, in fact the OAK-JFK red-eye was completely full!

--Russ