80% of the seats that get into the air flying. The problem is that there are so many seats left on the ground. Most of the majors have a good number of planes parked in various place, many still on the books. Some of the majors have cut back on the number of banks through the hubs or changed their scheduling to reduce their aircraft utilization. Leases and salaries still get paid (for now.) Too many airlines are stuck with: - Year 2000 'over-the-top' union contracts with only a few since rolled back. - Year 2001 fleet sizes, albeit with some of the deadwood removed - Post 9/11, post dot.com depressed traffic levels - AirTran/SouthWest fares - Year 1990 or 1973 type fuel prices Thinking of it that way, I'm amazed that so many of them are still flying! My opinions only. Matthew On May 10, 2004, at 9:39 PM, Donald Mamula wrote: >> But the market is currently saddled with excess capacity at too high >> of a cost. > > > Load factors are being reported in the 80% range. I would agree with > the "too high a cost" comment.....but not the first part.