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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

#191

Post by uoaei »

scott_s wrote: post #81

I'm also convinced that we exit the plane in the worst way possible. We basically do it row-by-row: as the people in front of them leave, people in a row get up, get their bags, start walking down the line, and this cascades up the plane. The problem is that there is very little parallelism: while people in the next row to leave are getting their bags, no one is exiting the plane. This is similar to a stall in a proc…

The whole aisle fills up pretty immediately upon the Fasten Seatbelt sign becoming unilluminated. As soon as this happens, there's no other option except the row-by-row method, like when a stoplight turns green on a bunch of waiting cars.

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

#192

Post by ngoel36 »

scott_s wrote: post #81

I'm also convinced that we exit the plane in the worst way possible. We basically do it row-by-row: as the people in front of them leave, people in a row get up, get their bags, start walking down the line, and this cascades up the plane. The problem is that there is very little parallelism: while people in the next row to leave are getting their bags, no one is exiting the plane. This is similar to a stall in a proc…

We do row-by-row because, generally, people with higher status and/or fares sit closer to the front -- and it feels more fair to let them off (and on) first, even if it costs minutes.

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

#193

Post by russdill »

adwww wrote: post #135
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.

Boarding can't normally happen while the plane is being refuelled, which means passengers boarding the plane is the last thing that happens before the plane is ready to take off. That means the faster they can board passengers, the sooner the plane can get in the air. For deplaning it's not so urgent for the airlines to speed it up, as once the plane has been disenbarked there is still 40+ minutes of refuelling, clea…

Ah, thanks!

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

#194

Post by russdill »

paparush wrote: post #45
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've been on flights where the attendant comes on and says, "Ladies and gentlemen, several passengers have connecting flights that they are in danger of missing. When we reach the gate, please let these passengers to the front of the plane." As soon as we're at the gate and parked, the seatbelt light goes off and every-freaking-body stands up in the aisles. Animals.

I've had this happen after landing due to a medical emergency. Please remain seated so that the medical personnel can get to the patient. This after a high speed decent with speed brakes on the whole way down. And still, everyone stands up. We weren't even at the gate, they had brought stairs to the back of the plane along with the emergency vehicle(s).

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

#195

Post by oarabbus_ »

jbigelow76 wrote: post #121
jaywalk wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was on a flight a year or two ago where, upon landing, a woman turned her phone on and received a call informing her that her brother had passed away. She was understandably quite distraught as we taxied to the gate, and the lead flight attendant even made an announcement asking everyone to please remain seated so that she could exit the plane first. Nobody listened.

...the lead flight attendant even made an announcement asking everyone to please remain seated so that she could exit the plane first. Nobody listened. I find myself with a case of both sider-ism on this. One the one hand (the hand that really should win out), we should all be able to act as decent empathetic people with the instruction following capabilities of a 7 year old when the situation dictates. But on the ot…

Sure, the legroom is considerably lacking in economy class. But aside from that (a small price to pay for a trip that would otherwise take days to months, no?) what makes you call being on a flight being like "damn cattle"?

>But on the other hand, when you treat (and pack) your customers like a bunch of damn cattle, don't be surprised when they act like a bunch of damn cattle.

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

#196

Post by peteretep »

bcrosby95 wrote: post #137
benhurmarcel wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> getting on/off with my family is not optional for me. Ryanair has now accustomed Europeans to travel separately from their family, so it wouldn't surprise me to see that requirement change if it drops the price.

So Ryanair will take care of my 5 year old while I fly? Sounds peaceful. Last flight she spent 2 hours trying to lay down in the middle of the aisle.

Ryanair sadly don't do unaccompanied minors, but for an airline that does (and 5 seems to be the lower bound), and if flying with a partner, I've always wondered if the following would work:

Parent A flies without child on Day 1; Child is given to airline by Parent B on Day 2 and retrieved on the other end by Parent A. Parent B flies without child on Day 3.

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

#197

Post by dave5104 »

Invictus0 wrote: post #118
dave5104 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've typically had 20-25 extra minutes before they finally close the door. It's enough to get a head start on a podcast or watch a short TV episode.

There's nothing stopping you from watching that in the airport.

The only thing that comes to mind is worrying about listening for boarding info and making sure I don't miss it. Once my butt is in a seat, I'm no longer worried about making sure I get onto a plane at the right time.

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

#198

Post by mjevans »

scott_s wrote: post #81

I'm also convinced that we exit the plane in the worst way possible. We basically do it row-by-row: as the people in front of them leave, people in a row get up, get their bags, start walking down the line, and this cascades up the plane. The problem is that there is very little parallelism: while people in the next row to leave are getting their bags, no one is exiting the plane. This is similar to a stall in a proc…

Take the seat-width served by an isle (if there's only one it's the plane width), round up. This is the 'sparring'.

Disembark all of First class first, as it will have a different sparring and they paid more.

For the remaining rows start with modulus = 0, then 1, then up to (sparring) N - 1. Dequeue those rows in parallel in N waves.

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

#199

Post by peteretep »

gav wrote: post #175
scott_s wrote: post #81

I'm also convinced that we exit the plane in the worst way possible. We basically do it row-by-row: as the people in front of them leave, people in a row get up, get their bags, start walking down the line, and this cascades up the plane. The problem is that there is very little parallelism: while people in the next row to leave are getting their bags, no one is exiting the plane. This is similar to a stall in a proc…

> The reason we do the row-by-row method The seats at the front of the plane cost more money. The airlines want everyone who didn’t pay extra to suffer a little to encourage them to pay more next time.

I mean another take on this is that the airlines want the people who paid the extra money to get the benefits they paid for. Pisses me off to have paid for premium seating and then get caught in the general crush.

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

#200

Post by laumars »

fiblye wrote: post #126
ftio wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds like it might be faster, and I might like it for solo business trips, but getting on/off with my family is not optional for me. Assuming most multi-passenger groups feel similarly, and assuming solo business passengers represent only ~40% of the population, the impact of such a system (which would require substantially more passenger discipline/planning) would be pretty limited.

Yeah, with this idea, people would just clog up right outside the airplane door waiting for their family. Anyone trying to get through would get some angry looks for daring to push through.

Assuming you can even split the family up. Plenty of people travel with younger kids (5 and under) and there's no way in hell that can be done safely without having the parents with them.
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