According to the Department of Transportation, more passengers took flight in the year 2016 than ever before.
There were 823 million plane passengers in 2016 which was a big increase from 798 million in 2015. The rise of domestic passengers in the U.S. went up by 3.3 percent, while international went up 1.7 percent.
While more people were flying than ever, the number of planes also rose in 2016 so the load factor on airplanes actually dropped from 83.8 percent to 83.4 between 2015 and 2016.
Ten years ago planes had an average load factor of 75 percent which means that the airlines have become more efficient at filling their flights.
Of course, the more full a flight is the more efficient it is to the company as far as fuel costs and fees.
