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Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

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Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#51

Post by SoftwareMaven »

kemayo wrote: post #25
______ wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm prepared to admit that I am not motivated by this. To me it sounds far more pleasant to sit there outside reading while everyone else has to queue up, then walk in just before take-off to get into my comfortable first class seat, without being jostled by the entire rest of the plane's passenger complement slowly trudging past me and impinging on my personal space. Perhaps I'm weird.

You don't have to board immediately when they call first class. You can wait until everybody else has boarded.

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#52

Post by steve-howard »

colonelxc wrote: post #8
cliff wrote: post #2

I remember seeing this before. I think it's really cool, though in the article I read before one major block to implementing this is that you'd be splitting up group boarding (of even 2 people travelling together). I feel like that might be a tough message to try to explain to everyone at the airport, since in general people are worried about everyone in their party making it on the plane safely and with all their st…

Yes, the main problem with this method is that it is socially unacceptable to split up families and groups while they wait to board and are boarding. I think a slightly less efficient approach would be to somewhat batch up rows. So instead of having all of the people in the window aisle on one side of the plane enter, how about have 1 row of people (typically 3) on one side of the plane. Instead of doing every row at…

The family part could also borrow from Southwest; there, families board in between numbers (special preboard/unattended minors go before anyone at all, families in general go after business select). Although since we're assuming that the seats are assigned here, the families should probably go last (they take longer to get settled).

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#53

Post by davvid »

colonelxc wrote: post #8
cliff wrote: post #2

I remember seeing this before. I think it's really cool, though in the article I read before one major block to implementing this is that you'd be splitting up group boarding (of even 2 people travelling together). I feel like that might be a tough message to try to explain to everyone at the airport, since in general people are worried about everyone in their party making it on the plane safely and with all their st…

Yes, the main problem with this method is that it is socially unacceptable to split up families and groups while they wait to board and are boarding. I think a slightly less efficient approach would be to somewhat batch up rows. So instead of having all of the people in the window aisle on one side of the plane enter, how about have 1 row of people (typically 3) on one side of the plane. Instead of doing every row at…

Another simple solution would be to board from back-to-front. Right now it's front-to-back: the business-class passengers (at the front of the plane) board first. Economy class boards last and each passenger has to walk through the congestion.

Getting business-class travellers to give up their sense of entitlement and board last could be a little tricky, though. I'm sure there's a psychological marketing trick that could be used to make them happy about boarding last. Maybe something along the lines of, "You're special. Boarding starts 10 minutes later for business-class. Take your time" or something.

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#54

Post by joshwa »

______ wrote: post #17
kemayo wrote: post #3

Boarding 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.

Smugness isn't the word. It's more about having the whole experience be less stressful. I just made elite status for the first time, and being able to skip the lines, get my choice of seat (even in economy) makes a huge psychological difference.

I can settle into my seat, and do some work before the door closes, or even fall asleep before the wheels leave the ground.

Also, lounge access. Lounges make air travel civilized, like staying at a nice hotel (SFO international British Airways lounge excepted— it feels like being at a Holiday Inn Express).

(I'll fly 75k miles this year. AA PLT/OW Emerald, and I fly almost exclusively CX/KA/AA.)

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#55

Post by joshwa »

mgkimsal wrote: post #41

I flew a few weeks ago and dialogued (argued? - tried to be good natured about it!) with the boarding staff at 3 different gates about boarding processes. I suggested they try windows first, then middle seats, then aisle seats. 2 out of the 3 argued back that the way they were doing it had been 'proven' by some study some years back by... either a Finnish airline, or some studies in Arizona - I honestly can't remembe…

Please don't harass the gate agents unless they look really idle. They don't have control over the boarding process, and they are desperately trying to get everyone on board, seat change requests accommodated, standby and upgrade list cleared, plane catered, wheelchairs, minors, gate checked baggage, strollers, etc., all the while dealing with a bombardment of impatient, indignant, overtired, and entitled "customers".

Be pleasant and let them do their job. I believe their job performance is measured by on-time percentage/turn time.

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#56

Post by nostromo »

frossie wrote: post #47

Savings from sophisticated method to board plane faster: 110 million dolars Getting passengers to board when (and only when) it's actually their turn: priceless (and, I suspect, far trickier)

If they could find enough room, I always wondered why they don't have a line for each group. So, if there are 5 groups, have 5 starting point lines.

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#58

Post by vacri »

aurelianito wrote: post #46
city41 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are other practical considerations too. I can't even imagine trying to organize the passengers in the airport such that they board in the alternating row, outside-in configuration. And there's the pretty much insolvable problem of when they start boarding the plane, many people just get on and couldn't care less that their row/section hasn't been called yet.

The first part is easy, color code the ticket (e.g. first red, then blue, etc). The second issue is trickier, but it happens now anyway. I would say that they already know how to handle it.

Colour coding the ticket is not trivial - current monochrome printing is easy with thermals. Ever run a colour printer in an office? It's a nightmare to manage just in an of itself. Then there's a lot of investement in creating a system that works across all models of planes. It's doable, but it's not trivial.

Then on top of that is the issue that despite all this, a lot of people ignore what's on the tickets anyway and board when they feel like - the boarding crew are not going to tell someone to go back against the surging crowd and wait their turn. I've been on four international flights before and I followed the "people in this block, board now" - and when I entered, pretty much every time I passed by an uncalled block, it was at least a quarter full. People aren't disinterested particles.

Given also that planes are sitting around doing things both before and frequently after passengers have boarded (or waiting for the late passenger...), I don't think a straight-out claim that 10 minutes shaved off boarding times is a direct 10 minutes shaved off turnaround times (not that the article claims this, just being wary of it)

The video shows an "aisle management" technique, but it isn't a "boarding" technique, as the latter task is much more than wandering down the aisle.

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#59

Post by joshwa »

pyoung wrote: post #23

I am interested to know where they got the savings estimate. $110M seems like a bit much for cutting the boarding time by 10 to 20 minutes. I was under the impression that most airline delays were caused by weather and traffic, not boarding times.

There's actually a fair amount of time spent on the taxiway by arriving planes waiting for gates. Sometimes they'll shutdown and wait, but often they're sitting there idling. That's a lot of fuel savings by reducing time spent waiting for gates.

Additionally, increased turnaround times means that airlines can fly (on a marginal basis) more flights per plane per day. On high-load-factor routes that increased revenue can be significant.

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#60

Post by rorrr »

DaveMebs wrote: post #33
kemayo wrote: post #3

Boarding 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 don't think that boarding back to front is the necessarily an obvious win here. One thing you will see on flights is that people in the back often place their overhead bags in a compartment near the front. As they do not plan to access this during the flight, it causes them no trouble and saves carrying the bag back and forth. The downside, of course, is that people in the front quickly run out of overhead space wh…

Still, on average, back-to-front is faster.
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