In today's economic environment, an airline must make money, and having a flight depart with empty seats that could have been sold is wasting money. The major challenge is that an airline seat on a particular flight on a particular date and at a particular time is a perishable product; when a ticketed passenger doesn't show for the flight, the product spoils, its value upon the departure is zero, and the revenue opportunity is lost forever.

History and experience have shown that not all customers will show for a flight for various reasons. It is at this point that overbooking (selling more seats than are physically available on a flight) comes to the rescue. Overbooking ensures that revenue is generated from each available seat with minimal risk to the airline.

Most airlines own the detailed data in their systems that will help them to better understand the causal factors that contribute to no shows. Using Teradata's scalable, flexible, analytical technology to address this question allows you to exploit this data to full advantage.