Imagine you're a business person booking a flight between Los Angeles International Airport and Chicago O'Hare International Airport . You decide to fly United Airlines and splurge a few of your 400,000 precious miles to upgrade to a business class seat. After you pay, you take a gander at your e-ticket and see that you'll be flying on a Boeing 737-900ER, meaning you effectively just spent miles to fly in a seat that's not much nicer than in economy except for a better meal.
This might make you wonder why your flight didn't get a 787 instead, and subsequently question how airlines decide on the appropriate aircraft they'll fly for each of their routes. Routes with more demand get bigger planes One of, if not the primary factors that determines an airline's selection of an aircraft for a route is demand. How much forecasted passenger and cargo demand is there between the departure and arrival destinations? Obviously, your Los Angeles to Chicago flight won't be operated by a 50-seat CRJ-700.
After all, there's too much demand for such a small aircraft, as both the departure and arrival cities on your route are very popular for both tourism and business. Therefore, the route will almost always be flown with mainline aircraft such as the Airbus A320 or Boeing 737, and perhaps the occasional widebody. Depending on the time of year, an airline might swap the aircraft they use on a route.
For example, during the Winter peaks and Christmas season, United Airlines might upgrade the ai.
