The article pretty clearly suggests this policy was under consideration anyway, though the United incident at least seems to have affected the timing, and might have made it easier to pull the trigger.
> Overbooking is central to airline profitability
Flying full is certainly beneficial to profitability, and overbooking makes that more likely. But it's not without costs, and it's quite possible that the cost/benefit has changed since the policy became a norm.
The article pretty clearly suggests this policy was under consideration anyway, though the United incident at least seems to have affected the timing, and might have made it easier to pull the trigger.
> Overbooking is central to airline profitability
Flying full is certainly beneficial to profitability, and overbooking makes that more likely. But it's not without costs, and it's quite possible that the cost/benefit has changed since the policy became a norm.