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

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

From MarketWatch • Apr. 23, 2026

The group increased its capacity by 2.4% in 2025, while passenger load factor, a measure of how full the planes fly, decreased 0.9 percentage point to 85.6%.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026

Cargo load factor for the three-month period fell by 1.0 percentage point to 56.2%, a segment that still faces uncertainty due to changing trade policies and market dynamics, the air carrier said.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 13, 2025

Bigger airplanes with fewer flights create a higher load factor, which leads to more delays impacting more passengers.

From Slate • Jun. 3, 2023

This question of load factor is by all means the most important one in central station economy.

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