r/Damnthatsinteresting 4d ago

How long haul airline seating works Image

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u/Sumo-Subjects 4d ago

A missing piece here is cargo…many commercial airliners fly some industrial cargo in the belly of the airplane; it’s not just people’s checked luggage. That’s why the airlines always play this game of how much to charge for checked luggage, it’s not behave they really care, it’s because if too many people bring more than 1-2 checked bags they won’t be able to fit a MUCH more profitable palette down there

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u/ExpertPepper9341 4d ago

 A missing piece here is cargo…many commercial airliners fly some industrial cargo in the belly of the airplane; it’s not just people’s checked luggage. That’s why the airlines always play this game of how much to charge for checked luggage, it’s not behave they really care, it’s because if too many people bring more than 1-2 checked bags they won’t be able to fit a MUCH more profitable palette down there

This is so completely wrong it’s laughable. If it was true, they’d just be flying cargo, and not bother flying passengers at all, like countless cargo companies do.

Yes, airlines stuff some cargo into the plane, but it’s a fraction of the profitability.

With no passengers filling aircraft seats as demand dwindles in the wake of Covid-19, an increasing number of airlines are now piling cargo in the cabins of their aircraft in the hope to generate at least a fraction of the revenue they would have generated under normal circumstances.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/cathybuyck/2020/03/26/airlines-spot-revenue-opportunity-and-use-their-passenger-aircraft-to-ship-urgent-cargo/

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u/Sumo-Subjects 4d ago

Yeah someone else who works in cargo explained that , but thank you for the extra info and link! It’s really helpful