Allow airlines to overbook seats: IATA

New Delhi, April 17 : Global airline organisation IATA on Monday said that air passenger carriers should be allowed to continue the long-established overbooking practices.

"The airline business is unique in that once a flight takes off, the seats on that flight are no longer available for sale; it's a time-sensitive, perishable product," said the International Air Transport Association (IATA). 

"Through sophisticated revenue management systems that airlines deploy, they know the historical percentage of no-show passengers for any given route. As a result, airlines can, with a degree of certainty, overbook a flight considering the number of no-shows expected, thereby maximising the capacity available to customers."

IATA's comments on overbooking came after an incident in which a passenger was forcibly evicted out of US-based United Airlines flight.

The global airline association pointed out that some governments were considering regulations which would restrict the current practice of overbooking, where airlines, in some cases, book more passengers on a flight than the number of seats available.

"The airline business is highly marginal in nature; banning the practice of overbooking will reduce already-thin margins, and could reduce connectivity in turn," IATA said.