FAQ - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
BEST/WORST LOAD FACTORS REPORT
2) HOW IS THE DATA CALCULATED?
3) HOW ARE SEAT BLOCKS TREATED?
5) WHY ARE SOME REGIONALS SHOWN?
6) WHAT IS THE MINIMUM NUMBER OF FLIGHTS SHOWN?
1) I CAN'T SEE THE DATA?
The BEST/WORST REPORT is available to MORE TIER and above. The INTL BEST/WORST LOADS REPORT is available for INTL TIER and above
2) HOW IS THE DATA CALCULATED?
The base data is extracted from DOT T100 reporting. Load factor is calculated as passenger miles divided into available seat miles. Directions are combined. Markets are shown alphabetically first to reduce size. (i.e. ABE-CLT and CLT-ABE become only ABE-CLT.
3) HOW ARE SEAT BLOCKS TREATED?
Airlines report seats based upon how many seats the airplane is certified to carry. Voluntary choices to block seats are not considered, although an empty seat is lost revenue regardless of the reason.
4) WHY ISN'T IT NEWER?
There is a 60-90 days delay imposed by the DOT on the release of the data.
5) WHY ARE SOME REGIONALS SHOWN?
The source T100 data does not show the marketing carrier. A number of processes are in place to attach the operating carrier to the marketing (branded) carrier. If the regional only has one marketing carrier partner I have marked all their flights to their partner (or tried to), but for regionals with multiple partners like Skywest it gets more complicated. Changes were made as of February 2023 to improve the attachment of regionals to the proper Marketing Carrier in the domestic BEST/WORST REPORT. There is still not a good way to combine them in the INTL BEST/WORST REPORT and they will remain separated.
6) WHAT IS THE MINIMUM NUMBER OF FLIGHTS SHOWN?
For ULCCs the minimum is 12 flights per month, 20 for other carriers. Effective after 12/1/2024 the minimum for ULCC carriers will be 8 departures. For INTL BEST/WORST LOADS REPORT the minimum is 4 operations for the month.
7) WHERE IS INTERNATIONAL DATA?
Until 2023 there was a 90 day lag on international data. As a result it was not originally possible to include both domestic and international. Beginning with 2023 data there is a separate INTL BEST/WORST LOADS REPORT on INTL TIER.
8) WHAT CHANGES WERE MADE IN FEBRUARY 2023?
As of February 2023, load factor data back to 2018 was restated in load factor posts to attach the Operating Carrier to the Marketing Carrier using data from the DOT's OnTime database which lists both Operating and Marketing carrier. In cases where the same Operating Carrier operates flights for more than one Marketing Carrier in the same non-stop city-pair, the reported Operating Carrier load factor is duplicated for each marketing carrier with departures set based upon the split of carriers in DOT On Time data.