Live data from Hacker News

Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds

arstechnica.com

1–10 of 512 posts

Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds

#3
I always thought it would be best to let the window seats board first, ordered back to front to minimize waiting for stowing baggage, then middle seats back to front, then aisle seats back to front. Families traveling together would obviously complain, but it would probably get the plane boarded much faster overall.

Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds

#5
It would have been particularly interesting to see what would have happened had the study concluded the opposite: that letting slower passengers board first slows overall boarding. Which would have prevailed? Efficiency or the common decency inherent in allowing children and individuals with infirmities to board first?

Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds

#6
post #2

There's a lot of focus on improving boarding times. But I haven't seen any attempts to improve deplaning. It's always via the slowest possible method.

Huh, I've always found deplaning fast except in the case of the person who's overhead is three rows back. There are ways to make it all faster but require some systemic changes to how we travel.

Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds

#7

I always thought it would be best to let the window seats board first, ordered back to front to minimize waiting for stowing baggage, then middle seats back to front, then aisle seats back to front. Families traveling together would obviously complain, but it would probably get the plane boarded much faster overall.

[deleted]

Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds

#8
post #2

There's a lot of focus on improving boarding times. But I haven't seen any attempts to improve deplaning. It's always via the slowest possible method.

I took a RyanAir flight a few months back, and while there were many things to justify their reputation for being super-budget, one thing I did like was that they did boarding from both sides of the plane - They had a ramp at the rear exit as well as the front. It was one of the most convenient deplaning experiences I've had.

Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds

#10

It would have been particularly interesting to see what would have happened had the study concluded the opposite: that letting slower passengers board first slows overall boarding. Which would have prevailed? Efficiency or the common decency inherent in allowing children and individuals with infirmities to board first?

I don't understand why boarding first is desirable, except for scarcity of overhead luggage space (heightened by checked bag fees and growing rollaboard bags) and those few first class folks getting a free drink while they wait.

Fix the storage issue and I'd want to board last - don't extend my time in those seats!

Post reply on HN