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

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

The airline’s chief commercial officer, Mark Galardo, tells analysts that the load factor — or the share of available seats filled by paying passengers — is on track in 3Q to exceed prior year levels.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026

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

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 23, 2026

The curve of December 20, 1897, shows a load factor of about 48 per cent.; the curve of May 2, 1898, shows a load factor of nearly 60 per cent.

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