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Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds

arstechnica.com

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

#21

Post by virtuous_signal »

undefined1 wrote: post #4

CGP Grey has a great video examining different boarding methods and why some are slower or faster than others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAHbLRjF0vo Also noting that the way we deplane (front to back) is the slowest method, heh.

Great video. This is one of those phenomena, like how to fix traffic jams, that everyone has an opinion on because of firsthand experience, but few people know about the actual research on. Despite there being known fast methods, I think 2 things stand in the way of implementing them:

1) Business and 1st class make a lot of money for airlines. Not letting them board first (although personally I've always wondered why this is desirable) would devalue their tickets and make less profit for the airline.

2) Airplanes have to undergo certain maintenance checks or procedures whenever they land. Those take some fixed amount of time. There is no incentive to speed up the boarding/deplaning process past that fixed amount of time, since it won't be the limiting factor.

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

#22

Post by Scoundreller »

leetcrew wrote: post #11
russdill wrote: 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'm guessing this is because the airlines feel it's easier to enforce boarding procedures than deplaning. hardly anyone is going to charge the gate to board out of order, but once the plane has arrived at it's destination, people want to stand up and get off as soon as they get a chance.

> hardly anyone is going to charge the gate to board out of order

I don’t know if it’s anticipatory anxiety or what, but I seemingly observe half the passengers stand and get in line at first call. And even queue up for the queued boarding calls.

I always get on toward the end and never had an issue finding space, but I understand it’s aircraft and airline dependent.

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

#23

Post by Scoundreller »

munk-a wrote: post #16
leetcrew wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing this is because the airlines feel it's easier to enforce boarding procedures than deplaning. hardly anyone is going to charge the gate to board out of order, but once the plane has arrived at it's destination, people want to stand up and get off as soon as they get a chance.

I think there is also pressure from connecting flights, if the plane is running late it's not uncommon to see people with really close windows jump the line in terms of deplaning - sometimes with the assistance of the flight crew.

I wish that was formalized as well. If you have a 5 hour layover, or need to wait for checked bags anyway, and rush to deplane, you’re just creating real problems for others with minimal benefit to yourself.

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

#25

Post by StillBored »

Scoundreller wrote: post #22
leetcrew wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing this is because the airlines feel it's easier to enforce boarding procedures than deplaning. hardly anyone is going to charge the gate to board out of order, but once the plane has arrived at it's destination, people want to stand up and get off as soon as they get a chance.

> hardly anyone is going to charge the gate to board out of order I don’t know if it’s anticipatory anxiety or what, but I seemingly observe half the passengers stand and get in line at first call. And even queue up for the queued boarding calls. I always get on toward the end and never had an issue finding space, but I understand it’s aircraft and airline dependent.

With the American domestics, its because all the frequent flyers are flying with large carry-on's and large personal items. Combined with all the non-frequent flyers trying to avoid baggage fees by packing everything in a large carry on.

If you don't get on fairly early after them, its likely you won't have a place to put your carry on, or it will end up being in the back of the plane/whatever forcing you to wait longer to get off.

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

#26

Post by RangerScience »

pseudolus wrote: post #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?

> the common decency inherent in

Is it tho? I don't find it intuitively obvious that this is the more-human-decency position. It's a feel-good button sure, to give priority to those with more needs. It's just not clear to me whether or not children and people with infirmities actually want / benefit from boarding first.

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

#27

Post by goodcanadian »

ryandrake wrote: post #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.

WestJet used to board window seats first (and those traveling with someone in a window seat). I always found that much faster than other airlines. Alas, they stopped the practice years ago.

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

#28

Post by saagarjha »

oneepic wrote: post #24

Can't wait to get to the airport and hear them call for boarding: "At this time we'd like to welcome all our slower passengers to the boarding process. Again, our slow, lazy passengers are welcome to board the aircraft." "Group 1..."

I'd assume they'd sugarcoat it by saying "seniors, pregnant women, and those with disabilities" or similar instead.

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

#29

Post by munk-a »

xmodem wrote: post #14
snarf21 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I wish airlines and airports would work at getting the checked bags off the damn plane faster. Whenever I check a bag I could have carried on, it feels like I'm being punished for it, as inevitably it comes out 1 minute after the every-30-minutes train departs.

I just wish they would reverse the trend of making checking luggage so damn expensive - once upon a time people most people didn't have wheely bags and it was much less unpleasant to board a plane.

Now a-days a lot of travelers will try and cram their entire luggage into a single wheely bag that they struggle to lift into the overhead bin.

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

#30

Post by wtvanhest »

virtuous_signal wrote: post #21
undefined1 wrote: post #4

CGP Grey has a great video examining different boarding methods and why some are slower or faster than others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAHbLRjF0vo Also noting that the way we deplane (front to back) is the slowest method, heh.

Great video. This is one of those phenomena, like how to fix traffic jams, that everyone has an opinion on because of firsthand experience, but few people know about the actual research on. Despite there being known fast methods, I think 2 things stand in the way of implementing them: 1) Business and 1st class make a lot of money for airlines. Not letting them board first (although personally I've always wondered why…

One option that isnt discussed is having the overhead bins be seperately ticketed and a box. So if you want a bin, you pay $40 and one gets asigned to you. It would streamline boarding because people would put their stuff in the bin and be done.
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