You might not think it, but planes overbooking passenger seats benefits everyone if it's handled correctly

Any airline that chooses to sell 5 or 10 per cent more tickets than there are fitted to the plane should be allowed to do so. But now and again the airline guesses wrong, and everyone shows up

Selling more seats than there are on a plane might look like the unacceptable face of airline capitalism; many travellers are enraged by the possibility that they could buy a ticket for a flight but then be turned away at the gate because the departure is “oversold”.

Yet overbooking, when practised properly, is an important asset in aviation. Selling all the seats on a plane and then some more benefits airlines, passengers and the environment.