AI is coming for the cheap seats on your favourite flight route

The lucky dip of stumbling on a cheap seat on a popular flight is starting to disappear. Airlines are handing their pricing to artificial intelligence, and on busy routes that mostly means one thing: higher fares.

Carriers have long priced seats with analysts and rules of thumb, such as bumping fares by 20 per cent once a flight is a quarter full. AI replaces those spreadsheets with models that weigh dozens of variables in real time and adjust continuously to demand, Bloomberg reported.

The effect is to shrink the pricing gaps that once let travellers find bargains. Airlines from Delta to Virgin Atlantic are adopting the tools to squeeze more from every flight. They sell fewer seats below what they think you will pay, and pack planes closer to capacity.

Cheaper too, sometimes

It is not all bad for flyers. The same models can cut fares on quieter routes...

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