The days of stretching out across a row of empty seats on a flight are long gone. During the upcoming holiday travel season, it may be just as hard to find empty seats on a flight, period.
Last week, major airlines including Delta, American, United and Continental announced they are cutting flights and reducing the number of seats available on existing flights in the coming months and into next year.
They are acting on the assumption that oil prices will remain high.
American Airlines said it would cut available seats through the end of the year by 0.5 percent. The airline already made reductions by up to 4 percent on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
United and Continental, which are now one airline, said seat availability would likely be reduced by 2 percent to 3 percent for domestic flights for the year. Delta plans to make similar reductions in 2012.
“This coming winter we will be flying approximately 20 percent fewer seats in the market than we did in the summer,” said Ed Bastian, Delta president, during an industry conference last week.
It is typical for airlines to drop seating capacity after Labor Day to adjust for lower demand in the winter months, but that drop typically falls in the 10 percent to 20 percent range.
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
If you were to book a flight Monday for Christmas weekend from LAX to New York La Guardia, you will likely be paying at least $600 to $700 roundtrip.
Are you making holiday travel plans already? Tell us about it on our Facebook page.
