load factor

American  

noun

1. the amount or weight of cargo, number of passengers, etc., that an aircraft, vehicle, or vessel can carry.

2. the percentage of available seats, space, or maximum carrying weight paid for and used by passengers, shippers, etc..

   An airline can't profit on a 40 percent load factor.

3. Electricity. the ratio of the average load over a designated period of time to the peak load occurring in that period.

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load factor British  

noun

1. the ratio of the average electric load to the peak load over a period of time

2. aeronautics

   1. the ratio of a given external load to the weight of an aircraft

   2. the actual payload carried by an aircraft as a percentage of its maximum payload

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Etymology

Origin of load factor

First recorded in 1890–95

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

load factor

Cathay Pacific’s 293 0.69%increase; green up pointing triangle passenger revenue climbed 26% to HK$43.20 billion in the first half, with its passenger load factor improving to 87.5% from 84.8% a year ago.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

The Thameslink service which topped the list had a "load factor" – meaning how full the train was – of 176% at London St Pancras shortly after 08:00.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

The West Midlands service to Crewe had a load factor of 170%.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

That pushed load factor up by 0.7 percentage points to 81.3.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 23, 2026

Power business naturally shows a still better load factor, say 35 per cent., and the all-night restaurant has a load factor of 48 per cent.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 1178, June 25, 1898 by Various