Revenue Seat Miles
Categories: Metrics
See: Revenue Passenger Miles (RPM).
Different forms of transportation have different levels of a capacity. A pogo stick can accommodate one person. A sports car can fit two. An Airbus A380 can fit 853.
Revenue seat miles (or, as its sometimes called, available seat miles) measures the capacity, also taking into account how far the form of transportation traveled (an A380 being able to go further than a pogo stick).
The figure is used by transportation companies (it comes up most commonly with airlines) to measure their revenue capacity. It asks the question: how many paying customers can the airline transport? (That's where the "revenue" part comes into "revenue seat miles.") Multiply the number of seats available for paying customers on a form of transportation (hence, "revenue seats") by the number of miles traveled. That gives you the RSM figure, a measure of capacity.
So, fly an A380 2,000 miles. That's 853 seats, multiplied by 2,000 miles. That flight was worth about 1.7 million RSM.
