Why do airlines seem to overbook flights so often, especially when they end up having to pay extra in rewards to passengers who give up their seats?

Question

It just seems like it happens so often, and airlines will sometimes offer you three times the price of the ticket just to stay a few extra hours. Seems like it’d be easy to just…stop selling tickets once the plane is full??

In: Economics

Answer 1

One part of this is that the airline NEEDS that plane at the next location. At some point the money from subsequent flights and delays outweighs the losses from one flight’s overbooking.