Allocation of Airline Seats between Stochastically Dependent Demands

This paper examines the problem of allocating airline seats between two nested fare classes when the demands for the classes are stochastically dependent. The well known simple seat allotment formula of Littlewood which requires the assumption of statistical independence between demands is generalized to a formula which requires only a much weaker monotonic association assumption. The model employed here is also used to examine the problems of full fare passenger spillage and passenger upgrades from the discount class.