Well it's very different for flights, they need the plane at the destination so they have to fly it. With movies it's probably just simpler to start the movie than to try to manage the logistics of not starting it, just to save 2 hours on the projection bulb.
These days that's probably true, but when a projectionist needed to roll the film and babysit the equipment I doubt it would be worthwhile.
Not to mention that film rolls do wear out overtime.
One of my student jobs was to transport film spools to theaters. They would arrive at my door in a box, I would walk them to the cinema on a small trolley and spend 2-3 hours in the projection rooms. The reels were spliced on site by a technician, projected, cut again and I transported them back home where they would be picked up again.
The job was less to transport the spools, but to supervise that there was no copying happening.
This was late 200x-ish, before digital protection became widespread iirc.
Wow. Was there any premier viewings on the spools you moved?
> different for flights
Maybe. Depends.
I’m sure I’ve heard of the low cost carriers cancelling flights that are under-sold at the last minute.
Would make sense if the destination has fewer tickets sold from there.
During COVID a lot of empty flights flew because otherwise the airline could lose the gate slots.
I once flew on a flight from ORD to ROC where I was the only passenger. It was very, very weird to be in a big empty cabin all by myself. The flight attendant just came and did the safety briefing sitting next to me. I asked her why they didn't just cancel the flight, and she said the plane had to be in ROC for the next morning anyway. This was in the 1990s though. I've never encountered anything like that since.
It is still like that. The airline’s operations all depend on the flight crew being in the right place at the end of the flight, which is a higher priority than getting a passenger there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_United_Express_passenger_...
I had a similar experience. Christmas Day from CRW to CLT. Just me and the stewardesses.
They tried to sit near me and be friendly, but I was too depressed to engage. Missed opportunity.