Boarding aircraft by row - worth the trouble?

[Harpoon]

When airlines attempt to board pax by row, usually starting at the rear, I really don't think it makes boarding any faster overall at all.

It tends be done on single aisle jets 737 and A320 more so than twin aisle, but I've seen it on both types. And some airlines do it more than others.

IMO the slow bit of boarding, tends to be some pax struggling to put up their bags in the OHL and requiring help or are just very slow getting OHL stuff organised. And then pax having to stand up to let other pax in to the window seats compounds the issue. By boarding rows 35-42 (or whatever they are) firstly, it concentrates this issue into a small section of the plane at a time, slowing down pax from taking their seats in that area, and lining them up all the way to the front of the plane and on to the airbridge anyway. Multiply this by 4 or 5 sections at a time and it's still highly inefficient way to board. I am yet to see a 737 or A320 boarded quickly (when fully booked) by doing it by row. To me it still takes the same 20 minutes.

I understand the theory behind boarding the rear first and then working your way forward, but in reality I don't think it works at all, and is in fact slower.

When pax are free to board whenever they like, you tend to get a spread of overhead luggage issues all through the aisle front to back , and standing up to let window seated pax in so 10 or so people can get seated at once. It's spread out front to back, and generally seems to me to be as efficient or a better way of getting people seated overall, rather than concentrating seating pax in one tiny area at a time.

Based on my own limited observations in Y, I can't work out why airlines persist with the row by row seating. It seems quite illogical to me in reality when carry on, congestion in one tiny area and window vs. aisle seats are factored in.

IMO a much smarter order if they want one is to ask all pax with a window seat to board first, e.g. "All those seated in A or J please board first". Too obvious? Sure families and couples want to board together, so this is probably not gonna happen, but in reality lots of people ignore the row by row seating calls anyway.

Have I got it wrong? is row by row boarding really better??

 

[Mattg]

Most likely someone in an office thinks it's more efficient, so that's how it's done. In reality I doubt it makes any real difference, timewise. You have a valid point though, it's probably not really necessary. And nearly everyone seems to ignore it and board when they like anyway.

 

[dk4]

Some people make a living pondering things like this.

Analytical and simulation results show that group/zone boarding can speed up the airplane boarding process. Airlines use a number of different group/zone boarding systems or boarding rules, the idea (there are numerous variations) of some of them, are shown below. By pressing play you can view a simulation of different airplane boarding strategies...

See more here - Airplane Boarding

 

[juddles]

I think technically it makes sense, but once you chuck in the human factor it all goes to sh.t. Like the guy in front of me today clearing security at MIA - he had two whole trays full of cough in his pockets. Not blaming him, probably first time he flew, but it just shows that humans are amazing in their ability to frustrate smooth processes.

 

[harvyk]

I think technically it makes sense, but once you chuck in the human factor it all goes to sh.t. Like the guy in front of me today clearing security at MIA - he had two whole trays full of cough in his pockets. Not blaming him, probably first time he flew, but it just shows that humans are amazing in their ability to frustrate smooth processes.

Agreed, you can simulate senarios to your hearts content, but put the general public into the equation and you get the dykwia, the parent with 5 kids and the person who is not only bringing the kitchen sink, but also an oversized esky for good measure, and all the perfect in theory plans go right out the window.

 

[MrHyde]

This comes down to Queuing Theory. And queuing theory does take into account the various types of people through simulation. Have a close look at the videos posted and you will see that some passengers are taking more time than others and a queue starts building behind them.

The challenge when using queuing theory is properly modelling the various types of people down to a fixed number of parameters - namely how long do they take to take their seat and the appropriate spread of such times over multiple simulations.

 

[SeatBackForward]

It'll get solved one day in the future, heres how:

You arrive at the airport, check in and proceed to gate as normal. However instead of boarding the plane, at the gate will be the passenger cabin pod, and everyone will have all the time they need to find their seat, place their items in the storage areas, roam about etc. At T-15mins, all passengers will need to be seated at their designated seats, and the Pod will close up. You'll see the "plane" arrive, and using whizz-bang technology the pod will get loaded in its entirety into the empty cavity formerly called the fuselage..and away she goes..

Q-Pod is my name for it - the top heavy outsourced version of it at least.

 

[serfty]

AirNZ board non status economy PAX by seat type - Window (A/F), Middle (B/E) and Aisle (C/D).

AA board non status economy PAX using a 'randomly' assigned group number between 1 and 6.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

When airlines attempt to board pax by row, usually starting at the rear, I really don't think it makes boarding any faster overall at all.

It tends be done on single aisle jets 737 and A320 more so than twin aisle, but I've seen it on both types. And some airlines do it more than others.

IMO a much smarter order if they want one is to ask all pax with a window seat to board first, e.g. "All those seated in A or J please board first". Too obvious? Sure families and couples want to board together, so this is probably not gonna happen, but in reality lots of people ignore the row by row seating calls anyway.

Have I got it wrong? is row by row boarding really better??

Good luck getting people seated in window seats out of the QP or JL to board first. It would be about as successful as expecting exit row pax to board early-ish which enables the F/A to complete the overwing briefing earlier. All too frequently the last pax to board are in the exit rows so I see this same logic applying to window seat pax boarding last not first, even if requested in the boarding call.

IME DJ B737's & JQ A320's board quicker simply because they use both forward and rear doors to board. I think this method undoubtedly speeds up the boarding process as it's not an optional thing ie if seated in rows 1-15 you will board through the forward door & ditto for rows 16-30 who will be via the rear door.

Widebodied a/c don't seem to be nearly as much of a problem.

 

[juddles]

I think the boarding process is governed by the average pax type. Try getting on a fight from Miami to Colombia - it is a rare passenger who doesnt have at least 4 items of carryon. It takes about 45 minutes for a little 737 to fill. Unbelievable.

 

[vertisol]

law of averages says that window seat pax will only ever board after aisle and middle seat pax. I have ana aisle seat preference and am by no means an early boarder but I cannot remember the last time I didn't have to stand up to let the window seat guy in.

 

[thewinchester]

What, nobody has mentioned the method documented last year by an Astrophysicist who identified a whole new way of pax boarding using Monte Carlo optimisation. The optimal method discovered was alternate row boarding (odds and evens) that cut boarding time by half.

The following video gives an insight into the method:
[video=youtube;o9-XjEI8VmA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=o9-XjEI8VmA[/video]

 

[dfcatch]

I think the boarding process is governed by the average pax type. Try getting on a fight from Miami to Colombia - it is a rare passenger who doesnt have at least 4 items of carryon. It takes about 45 minutes for a little 737 to fill. Unbelievable.

OMG yes - I've always found that with MIA even on domestic flights.

However my flight last night from MIA-SJU matches your description to the letter

 

[ozbeachbabe]

OMG yes - I've always found that with MIA even on domestic flights. However my flight last night from MIA-SJU matches your description to the letter

Note that on the AA checkin counters there are signs saying there are embargoes for checking in boxes or anything other that standard sized suitcases on flights during holiday periods to those Central & South American countries.

 

[richie9x]

On a recent Air NZ A320 flight from WEL-AKL the boarding call was for status passengers to board first and I was surprised to hear them call for passengers seated at the window to board next. It didn't appear to be strictly enforced, more of a suggestion. Hard to tell how well it worked, but my feeling was that it didn't seem to be all that different from random boarding.

Emirates with their zone boarding seems to work quite well. But I think boarding on wide body jets is less of an issue as the load is balanced between the two aliases if there is a a hold up on one aisle sometimes passengers can use the other one, also having two or three air bridges helps.

These optimal boarding systems are all very good in theory. But seeing as some passengers even have trouble getting to the right gate, I think in practice it might be difficult to get them to board in a very particular order. They seem to be a lot of effort to get a boarding time that is only a bit quicker than random. You would likely need to be actively herding the passengers in the right order to make some of these systems work.

I think in practice boarding by a rear set of steps or a second air bridge has a greater impact than boarding speed than any fancy boarding order would have.

And ultimately there are other constraints such as refueling and loading/unloading baggage/cargo which limit how quickly you can turn a jet around. Is saving a few minutes on boarding worth the extra effort?