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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

#31

Post by StillBored »

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.

This is very airline/airport dependent. I used to marvel at how fast my bags arrived at ABIA. Then I stopped flying for a while and when I resumed it seems like my bags would take nearly an hour. At first I thought it was some kind of additional security/whatever, but then I noticed that Southwest passengers that were deplaning at the same time I was would have their bags at the claim by the time they got there, while I would end up waiting 30+ mins for bags from my AA flights.

I started to pay more attention, and am 100% sure at least between AA and SW, it literally takes AA 4-5x longer at the same airport vs SW.

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

#33

Post by StillBored »

munk-a wrote: post #29
xmodem wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Which slows down the boarding process, if anything they should be charging more for carry on board vs checked, it slows security too.

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

#34

Post by xiphias2 »

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..."

Slow and lazy is not the same.

I usually get in the plane with the last people, as I'm lazy to stand in line, but I'm doing the boarding itself fast, as I have done it many times in my life. I see other experienced travellers doing the same thing.

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

#35

Post by shanxS »

majormajor wrote: post #10
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?

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!

This is standard task scheduling problem (see CLRS section 17.5) with added constraint of slowing down processing as number of tasks finishes. This added constraint is justified by the fact that as people board they won't stay put in their seats in aircraft, they move move around increasing the time to board for passengers who haven't boarded yet.

This still remains a greedy problem and hence allowing slower passengers to board first will reduce overall time taken to board.

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

#36

Post by munk-a »

Scoundreller wrote: post #23
munk-a wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yea - I peppered that statement with conditionals because a lot of people don't tend to abide by that politeness - I only made a connecting flight (via a woman at the gate re-opening the causeway door) when my connection was cut down from 1:20 to 15 in JFK due to inclement weather once... And JFK is terrible.

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

#38

Post by reaperducer »

StillBored wrote: post #18

The conclusions are pretty obvious, I guess they just needed to simulate it? The fastest boarding I've ever experienced was something Cathay Pacific did a few years ago. In the boarding area they had three lines with a bunch of section signs and an a couple employees hassling/sorting people between the lines. The rear of the plane sections were at the front of the line. I'm guessing they were just counting how many p…

The fastest boarding I experienced was years ago somewhere in Asia (Singapore, maybe), where three lines boarded through three doors: Two on the terminal side, and one on the far side.

I was in the far-side group, and we had to hike up a lot of stairs and then through a jetway, presumably over the aircraft (hard to know with no windows), and then down a bunch of stairs and then enter the aircraft, where we could see people boarding from the other side.

Very fast, except for the long hike. But this was before people put everything and the kitchen sink into over-sized carry-ons, so it wasn't arduous.

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

#39

Post by cfallin »

GauntletWizard wrote: post #8
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 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.

I've only encountered that once in the US but it was great as well -- Southwest at LGB (Long Beach, CA) had a separate set of air-stairs at the back door for boarding. I would guess it's not done more here because there are few airports that both board with stairs on the tarmac rather than a jetbridge, and also have non-regional (737+) jets where it would make sense.

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

#40

Post by munk-a »

StillBored wrote: post #33
munk-a wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Which slows down the boarding process, if anything they should be charging more for carry on board vs checked, it slows security too.

And also theoretically lowers the efficacy of the security - the bags we carry onto planes go through relatively weak scanners compared to the crazy ones they've got for checked luggage - it's why sending most film through the carry on scanners isn't a problem, while the checked scanners will distort even quite insensitive mediums - it's best to try and get it searched by hand though, if it's important to you.
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