Spring Break=More Planes?

[maxiesmom]

My sis and I are planning our first Spring Break trip for next year. She was checking flights today and noticed that many of them are allmost full up!We didn't expect that so soon. Anyway, do they typically add more flights to take care of the Spring Break crowd, or should we snatch up seats while we can? Our Spring Break is the week right after Easter, if that makes a difference. TIA!!

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

The airlines do not schedule extra flights after regularly scheduled flights fill up.

The airlines have become quite skillful at predicting demand. So, on days when the demand will be higher than usual, the average price per seat will be much higher. That's because there are fewer (if any) heavily discounted seats and more full fare coach seats.

The airlines operate very full flights these days, regardless of the time of year. At low-demand times, the airlines accomplish this through aggressive discounting. At high-demand times, the airlines enjoy the ability to charge more.

By the way, the seat maps that show flights to be "almost full" can be misleading. The seats that show as occupied can be seats that are only available to elite frequent flyers or are held back for assignment at the airport on the day of the flight. So, although the seats show as assigned, they really aren't. This is especially true on United, where the front third of the economy cabin is Economy Plus (more legroom) and shows as occupied when you book a regular economy seat

 

[Hannathy]

Gates and gate time let alone take off and landing slots are extremely hard to get! Air lines can't just add flights. What some airlines can do is if they have a bigger plane in their inventory AND the airport allows it AND they have the crew available AND the support Staff and the Clearance, they may change the airplane to a larger one and sell more tickets but that is about all they can do.
If it is important to get certain dates I wouldn't dawdle at that time of year

 

[MFLetou]

Not to mention that you can't just add equipment at the drop of the bucket for a short time. You have a fixed number of aircraft--yes, airlines frequently adjust schedules to insure the best utilization, but if flight schedules are already released for a time period, then the aircraft utilization is done.