While we're on the subject of statistics, airplanes, and mathematically-but-not-socially-correct ways to do things, I really wish they'd have seats on the plane spaced according to a height distribution of passengers.
Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half
11–20 of 114 posts
Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half
#12Boarding by blocks starting at the front is ridiculous. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to think of a worse way to board a plane. And yet somehow every time I fly that's how it happens. Maybe it's just that my company chooses horrible airlines. The article mentions that assorted methods of boarding were tried, though it only goes into detail about "the Steffen method". I wonder what the difference between blocks-from-th…
The difference is generally that higher-paying (i.e. first and business class) passengers get seated first (because having your higher-paying passengers wait for the lower-paying passengers is undesirable), and they're also generally seated at the front of the plane so they don't have to wait when getting off either.
At least one U.S. airline (I forget which) briefly used a transparent scheme to work around this: the first class rows were boarded first, and from there was back to front.
Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half
#13He should totally patent his boarding method. Who cares that it could save the airlines billions? He could rake in so much dough by licensing the method or suing airlines who use his method without a license! And if the patent is vague enough, he could probably collect on all the other inferior boarding methods too!
In all seriousness, the boarding problem only got worse once airlines started charging for bags as people starting carrying on more and more. I read somewhere that Southwest actually saves more money by offering free checked bags and saving on boarding time than they would make had they charged for free bags.
Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference is generally that higher-paying (i.e. first and business class) passengers get seated first (because having your higher-paying passengers wait for the lower-paying passengers is undesirable), and they're also generally seated at the front of the plane so they don't have to wait when getting off either.
At least one U.S. airline (I forget which) briefly used a transparent scheme to work around this: the first class rows were boarded first, and from there was back to front.
United/Continental does this (basically). First class first, followed by their frequent-flier-tiered passengers. From then on, it's back to front.
Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half
#15While we're on the subject of statistics, airplanes, and mathematically-but-not-socially-correct ways to do things, I really wish they'd have seats on the plane spaced according to a height distribution of passengers.
Height distribution? I'd much prefer a wingspan-based distribution. There's nothing like getting stuck in a middle seat between two broad-shoulderd gentlemen.
Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference is generally that higher-paying (i.e. first and business class) passengers get seated first (because having your higher-paying passengers wait for the lower-paying passengers is undesirable), and they're also generally seated at the front of the plane so they don't have to wait when getting off either.
Though back-to-front means that the expensive passengers can arrive closer to the departure time, and don't have to suffer through everyone in economy shuffling by them and hitting them with their carry-on. It does cost them some flexibility, in that they can't board as soon as they arrive. But my experience is that sitting outside of a plane is generally far nicer than sitting in first class... at least on domestic…
You misunderstand a big part of a first class ticket. The curtain between first class and economy class doesn't make the seats more comfortable. It keeps "undesirables" out of the sight of snobs. If airlines want snobs to board later, they better install curtains segregating the lobby.
Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half
#17Boarding by blocks starting at the front is ridiculous. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to think of a worse way to board a plane. And yet somehow every time I fly that's how it happens. Maybe it's just that my company chooses horrible airlines. The article mentions that assorted methods of boarding were tried, though it only goes into detail about "the Steffen method". I wonder what the difference between blocks-from-th…
I think part of the reason that people could justify the expense of first class is exactly this -- the ability to sit there with a smug look while the rest of the plane exasperatedly waits to be seated.
Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half
#18Boarding statused passengers first aside, it seems like this could be easily communicable with announcements of "boarding even rows", "boarding odd rows".
I skimmed the paper and didn't see any mention of how to get passengers to obey gate agent instructions, though, which would be a prerequisite of implementing an effective boarding method. Perhaps this should be re-tested by airlines randomly selecting sold out flights with identical planes to try these methods.
Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half
#19While we're on the subject of statistics, airplanes, and mathematically-but-not-socially-correct ways to do things, I really wish they'd have seats on the plane spaced according to a height distribution of passengers.
Height distribution? I'd much prefer a wingspan-based distribution. There's nothing like getting stuck in a middle seat between two broad-shoulderd gentlemen.
You obviously don't have long legs.
Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half
#20Looking at the paper, it seems the passengers were the same and boarded five times in a row, with the last two methods proving the fastest. The major experimental flaw seems to be that the passengers themselves might learn to become more efficient after concentrating on a normally rare task, and repeating it several times in a row. Also, since some of them were paid extras, they might just be getting impatient by the end, and rushing through at what would normally be an uncomfortable pace. The population sampling is also probably not representative.
I would have found the experiment more convincing if it had been used to validate the basic assumptions of the theoretical model instead (e.g. the statistical distribution of the baggage loading and seating times).