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Aviation glossary

Load factor

Also: passenger load factor, PLF, seat load factor

Airlines and business

Share of the capacity offered that is actually sold; for passengers, revenue passenger kilometres divided by available seat kilometres over a flight or period.

What it is

On a single flight, it is simply the share of seats filled: an aircraft with 180 seats carrying 153 passengers has a load factor of 85 per cent. Across a whole network it is calculated as revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) divided by available seat kilometres (ASK), so longer flights carry more weight.

Airlines watch it closely because many of the costs of a flight are largely fixed: the aircraft, the crew and much of the fuel cost almost the same whether the cabin is full or half empty. Carriers therefore compare it with the break-even load factor, the minimum needed to cover costs. In recent years, IATA figures have put the global average at around 80 per cent or slightly higher.

Cargo has a load factor of its own, comparing the freight tonne-kilometres sold with those available.

Related terms

ASKMeasure of an airline's capacity: the number of seats available for sale multiplied by the kilometres flown by each, totalled over a period. RPKMeasure of airline traffic: the number of fare-paying passengers carried multiplied by the distance, in kilometres, that each of them flies. Passenger capacityNumber of passengers an aircraft can carry, which varies with the cabin layout chosen by the airline and is capped by a certified maximum. Low-cost carrierAirline built around keeping costs down to sell cheap fares: a single aircraft type, high aircraft utilisation, one cabin class and extras charged separately.
Whole glossary

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This page was last updated on October 9, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). Load factor. Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/load-factor

MLA

“Load factor.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/load-factor. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “Load factor.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/load-factor.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Load factor. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/load-factor (Accessed: 17 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_load_factor,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Load factor}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-09},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/load-factor},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/load-factor}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-17},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-17}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/load-factor |title=Load factor |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-17 |language=en}}

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