Originally Posted by
PAXboy
The other week, we were on a Friday mid-afternoon LHR ~ PRG and the A320 was remarkably full.
As an aside I'd say as a frequent short haul traveller in/out of LHR I know to my cost (literally) that busy Friday PM flights are now pretty much a "given" on any short haul route ex LHR due to the UK based long weekenders, who actually start to travel outbound late Thursday. If you have an ability to look at prices vs. days you'll see there's a similar phenomenon inbound to LHR on Monday flights.....
As to the general point, yep, the airlines have got very good at matching prices to demand, and the internet has made it so easy for people to chase the cheap fares, so much so that there is rarely a "quiet" flight or a quiet period on a route.
As an example from a crew POV maybe 20 plus years ago we would expect to see plenty of empty seats on Christmas Day flights.. nowadays we expect them to be busy, even to/from the non exotic destinations, as the airlines proactively drop their fares and people get used to being more flexible with their travelling plans in order to take advantage of cheaper flights...