The Airlines’ Endless Quest for Better Boarding

by Adam

Even if you’re an elite or first/business class passenger, an extended boarding process certainly has the potential to delay your flight. That said, the AP, has an interesting article on the airline’s endless quest for a better (and speedier) boarding process.

Getting people on and off an airplane quickly is so complicated that even an astrophysicist couldn’t figure it out. Jason Steffen, a research fellow at Northwestern University, normally contemplates things such as axion-like particles. But after waiting in one boarding line too many, he turned to the mysteries of airline seating. So, after a series of calculations, he deduced that the best system would be a combination of filling all the window seats first, then all the middle ones and then the aisle ones, while also having the passengers board every other row. There was just one problem — passengers would have to board in precise order.  In recent weeks, United and American  have rolled out new strategies for faster boarding. Before the 2010 merger of United and Continental airlines, United used the inside-out method of boarding — window seats first, then middle, then aisle — while Continental used the back-to-front method, loading passengers a few rows at a time starting at the rear of the plane. After much testing…

Full article here. 8bd12e5997c41d19390f6a70670030c3

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1 comment

Grant August 4, 2013 - 8:15 pm

“the best system would be a combination of filling all the window seats first, then all the middle ones and then the aisle ones, while also having the passengers board every other row. There was just one problem — passengers would have to board in precise order.” – that will be the day…

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