You may have noticed that fares vary from day to day and from time to time. The reason: In order to work cost-effectively, airlines want to occupy all seats in the aircraft at the beginning of the ticket sales phase. So there are often early bird discounts long before the departure date. If the costs are covered and there are still seats left, the company can sell the remaining seats for more money – and make even more profit. If the flight is not fully booked until shortly before departure, ticket prices will fall again to exhaust existing capacity.
The yield manager is responsible for making sure that this process runs optimally and the airline generates as much revenue as possible.