Are Flights Emptier? You Tell Us!

They say that stats don’t lie, but I get the feeling sometimes they don’t get at the whole truth either. The latest air travel data tells us that, even though airlines have been reducing air service, so few people are flying right now that flights are still looking pretty empty. That’s a snapshot of the industry as a whole, but it may not accurately reflect what everyone is seeing. So we’re turning to you.

Have you flown lately? Then please take a moment to complete our newest survey (you’ll be briefly redirected to another site) on what real travelers are seeing in the skies these days. We’ll compile the results and publish them in an upcoming blog post, and get to the bottom of this whole empty plane thing.

My personal experience has been a little mixed. Last week, I was on a full flight from Oakland to Orange County, which I suspect was packed mostly because it was spring break and we were flying into the gateway to Disneyland. A Tuesday night flight back to Oakland, however, was so empty that I was able to score an A boarding pass (yes, I was flying Southwest) when I checked in at the airport 90 minutes before takeoff. (Southwest flyers know that, thanks to 24-hour advance online check-in, getting an A boarding pass by checking in at the airport is pretty unusual.)

Have you had similar experiences? Wildly different ones? Tell us about it!