Airlines want to board planes quickly. A short delay has knock-on effects, because the next flight is likely delayed and the next flight. Passengers miss their connections, bags don’t make their next flight either, and crew delayed on one flight delay other flights too (and may even reach their maximum duty hours for the day, leading to cancelled flights).
So the science of how to board a plane quickly matters a great deal to the bottom line. Southwest Airlines has said it would cost them 8-10 planes per day just to add “a couple of minutes of block time to each flight in our schedule.”
Every so often airlines tinker with their boarding process, trying to speed things up. Southwest tends to board quickly because the order in which a passenger boards determines where they’ll sit on the plane. So they show up at the gate 30 minutes before their flight and they line up in a usually orderly fashion. Airlines with assigned seating do not have that advantage.
One study found an optimal board process would be to board
passengers in a series of waves, with the first passengers called to board seated in window seats two rows apart—first 30A, then 28A, then 26A and so on. Next, the same for the other side of the plane (30F, 28F, 26F). The process continues with odd row window seats on either side, middle seats, and finally aisle seats. Each person can sit down within moments of one another without getting in anyone’s way. In field tests, it proved to be almost twice as fast as most conventional methods, and 20% to 30% faster than have-at-it, entirely random boarding—which is also faster than the method used by airlines. (He too would board slower passengers requiring assistance first.)
In the real world you can’t do that. Doug Parker explains that there are customer considerations, and you can’t just do whatever is best for fast boarding. Especially now you want to socially distance passengers during the boarding process, even if most airlines are no longer blocking seats and planes are increasingly full.
He explained in a meeting with flight attendants earlier in the month why American Airlines won’t move to ‘back-to-front’ boarding despite its intuitive appeal:
We have looked at that, we’ve studied it, and while it may seem better to have people go from back to front ..what you really want to do is window-to-aisle but if you do that you split up families and things.
When you do back-to-front there is just as much if not even more in some cases interaction with customers getting up and out of the aisle as there is with our process.
So what we choose to do instead is tell our frequent flyers – our elite customers – they can board whenever they like and then we use our normal boarding process.
And then we ask when you leave, because we have everyone actually window-to-aisle and they’ll leave properly..but we’ve seen no increase in the lack of close interaction by going back-to-front versus the process we use.
..We’ve studied this with operations engineers who go look and watch and we don’t see any material change and in some cases more interaction.
You can’t split up families, so the ‘theoretically best boarding order’ doesn’t work. And back-to-front leads to bunching as well. And since those don’t work out as well in practice as in theory, their regular boarding process stands.
This is why airlines all tinker with their process from time to time and never stop tinkering, because they’re never been able to do much to improve – with few exceptions.
In the early days of Southwest Airlines they struggled financially and returned one of their planes. They kept the bulk of their schedule despite having one fewer aircraft. And to do that they needed to turn planes in 10 minutes. Passengers were deplaning out the rear of the aircraft while new passengers were getting on. Southwest’s cabin crew even do light cleaning of the aircraft between flights.
AS much as it pains me to say this, this is one time where Discount Dougie is right-doing back to front boarding doesn’t do anything other than change who is stuck standing on the jetbridge waiting for traffic in front of them to clear. DL is doing this, even for it’s Medallion members AND C+ pax (who are told that by buying C+ they would get priority boarding); all this means is that by the time they get to the C+ section, the backup on the jetbridge goes almost to the gate. So much for ‘social distancing’. Anyone who thinks they’re going to catch the cooties boarding an airplane isn’t going to be getting on a plane, so stop with the cootie theater.
I rarely agree with Parker but he’s right on this one.
Back-to-Front would be faster than the current way in my opinion. Airlines won’t do it because the passengers seated more towards the front would be fuming that the “cattle class” sitting in the way back gets to board before them. All about perceived status.
In Europe I was often forward through the back of the aircraft why don’t we do it in the US ? Two boarding doors would fill a 737 in minutes
The problem isn’t HOW they load, it’s the people who are so slow getting seated. From taking forever to put their luggage up, to taking their coat off in the plane, to looking at every aisle to find their row while thinking 24 will be near the front. Add in people on the aisle buckling in when the window and middle are still empty, and it comes down to same lack of common sense and common courtesy that many lack.
These studies often fail to account for the fact that many people don’t comply with the boarding rules. In my experience 1 out of 10 passengers tries to board before their position because they don’t know any better or because they’re a self-important retard. It defeats the whole system.
Total bull.. they just want people to pay for the privilege to board first, dumbest con article ever
It’s all about carry on space. Elites like me are very angry when the bins are full because no status cheap ticket folks sitting in the rear are allowed to board early and fill up the front bins with their bags.
If FAs could police front bins this would not be an issue but they already have their hands full
@jcil
Those people in the front are paying for your lowest (inflation adjusted) cost tickets in history. Getting to board first when the plane is empty is one reason some are willing to pay so much for those seats that subsidize the people in the back.
Line everyone up by number like southwest with the last row window on left being number 1 and the right window seat.being number 4 and the next row left window bring number 7 etc. If you miss you spot on line you need to wait until everyone on board.
I disagree with all these comments. Your real issue is tha average passenger wants to bring on everything but the “kitchen sink”. How often have you seen a family of four bring luggage, stuffed animals and grandma’s ashes on board and all the overhead bins are full. Doug, ya can’t be that blind. Look at Alegiant, Spirit and Frontier Airlines business plan (thanks Ryan Airlines for the business model) for charging non loyal members. And Doug, AA is less desirable than the above mentioned airlines.
If people would just follow boarding procedures (and GA’s enforce them) this would not be a huge problem.
I agree it takes forever to wait for everyone to put the carry on up top.
It all got out of hand with the carry ons when the airlines started to charge for check bags.
Allow each customer one free check
Bag and charge everyone for the carry on $30 and allowed one personal item to carry on.
Than watch how fast plains get loaded
Just one mans opinion
I flew AA from ORD to BDL last night, full price in 1A. Not once did the FA ask me if I wanted anything to drink, etc. Parker, you have more problems than boarding order. I’ll stick with DL and UA, thanks.
I really don’t understand why researchers don’t take party size into account when doing their models. This isn’t a theoretical exercise, so there’s no point in pricing proving the fastest way to board if everybody flew alone.
Abey, I have done that in the Caribbean and some parts of Central America, and it works beautifully. But I have yet to see a jet bridge that would work for doors behind the wing. That means air stairs and having dozens of people walking on the apron at a busy airport. I shudder to think of the risk and discomfort due to noise, vehicles and inclement weather. For most of the airports I have been to in the US a jet bridge at the front door is the safest and most comfortable solution even if it is slower. Just my 2 cents.
they need to copy how ANA and JAL load their planes.
I don’t really believe their ‘data.’ Fly pretty much any LC carrier in Asia (Scoot, Air Asia, Lion) and they almost all board back to front, deal with large parties, and board in a fraction of the time it takes the legacy 3. But they don’t have entitled FC pax who demand their PDB that the FA brings while blocking boarding. If carriers insist on maintaining FC, just move the boarding door behind it like intl wide body planes – that will solve most issues!
Why don’t you guys ask the flight crews working all of these flights what they think? Management isn’t there to experience one nightmarish boarding after another. Back to front does work. Period. It’s very efficient. I’m a flight crew member. I’ve worked more than 12,000 boardings.
Else just do what WN does or board back to front by rows but prevent people from using overhead bins not near their seats. That would address the fear of not having enough bins for more premium boards (less of an issue with the new bin design). Personally the less time I spend in the plane seat, the happier I am…
The article completely fails to actually answer the question in the headline. Parker just substituted an entirely different question about window to aisle. *Of course* back to front would be faster.
But then you’d need to do front to back unloading, so there would be no premium seating.
The problem is all the bags passengers bring on board. So much stuff and the time it takes to put it away or get whstever they need from their bags.
If they actually cared about speed, they would make checked baggage free and charge for carry ons. Carry ons are the biggest time waster, both getting on and getting off.
They’d also use the rear doors. I’ve seen photos of airports in the 60s that would park the airplanes sideways to allow jet bridges at both ends.
And they could also stop scheduling a ERJ 45 with the same 30 minute advanced boarding as a 767. Great, all 30 of us are on in 7 minutes and now we have to sit here for another 25? Why?
I also disagree with the article. My last flight boarded rear to front. It was fast, effecient and effective. I was in Delta Comfort so I was toward the front and later in the boarding que. It worked, there was bin space and there were no waiting pile ups or conflicts. I heard several people commenting on why they didn’t do this all the time. Yes, as a normal Priority boarder, I did have to wait to board, but I didn’t have to stand in que waiting for someone to try and wedge an obviously oversized piece of carry on into a space any 3 year old could tell you it wouldn’t fit in. You can study this all day long with a bunch of high paid “engineers” and you know what, all they really need to do is to take a couple flights with us regular folks and see for themselves.
Maybe the flight attendant should do more to speed up the process. Some just sit and look.
But then Again they don’t get paid till the boarding door is closed
Charge for carry one while giving one carry on checked bag free, boarding speed will increase by an order of magnitude.
Move the jet bridge to the back.door and then go back to front. Then moving the jet bridge twice per flight may be an issue. What is all this sitting together as a family? When you book a flight you pick your seats on the seating chart. What’s the problem? Charge for overhead space period. If it fits under the seat in front of you your good. If not stick a price to it that makes them a premium option.. The bean counters can do better. Lower overall price and screw us with the asterisk. I travel with 1 checked bag OR 1 bag in overhead compartment depending on flight schedule.. My laptop comes on with me. Who wants to drag all that crap making connecting flights. Seasoned fliers have this handled and rookies would figure it out quickly. Also stops all that stupid standing up as soon as the flight lands. The people who have isle seats now have an ass in their face for 15 mins or are obligated to stand up also. Nice we can all armchair quarterback this thing.
Accept… my wife and I just took 4 flights on AA and were astounded how long it took to board. Most definitely the most unorganized boarding on all four flights we’ve encountered in years. Easily twice as long as Southweat, United or New Zealand Air.
AA used to be a decent airline. They all pretty much suck today. I fly 3x a year for vacation and I dread the whole process.
Charge for carry-on and let checked bags go for free…that’ll speed things up.
Was once on a KL flight out of CPH where the flight was so full I got an upgrade (intra-Europe OP UPs are super rare). The outstation gate agents boarded main cabin pax without rollaboards before those with them. Everyone was on that plane so fast, the FAs were amazed.
Never seen that again since then.
The ideal boarding order is therefore:
1. People for whom getting on board first makes a huge difference in everyone’s boarding time (reduced mobility, small kids — the FILO crowd).
2. People who know how to board a plane quickly (actual FFs, regardless of status/credit cards. If you want to include active duty military, fine: I don’t see them wasting time in the aisles).
3. People without overhead bin bags.
4. Everyone else.
On the other hand, what impresses me in the US is how much of boarding time is consumed by the reification of the celestial hierarchy of status, as several fine gradations of FF seraphim and cherubim are sent on separately, while the accursed ones are made to watch.
Too many people are bringing large bags on. No FA or passenger should have to help someone put a bag up. That means it’s too big for you to handle. I like Southwest way of doing boarding except for the bag issue which is ridiculous because they don’t charge to check bags.
Here’s my solution to the carry-on bag problem. Charge for carry-on bags and reduce the price for checked bags. Or, eliminate overhead bins. If your bag doesn’t fit under the seat, it must be checked. On a recent flight into DFW, the plane taxied for 30 minutes. Then, with AA’s COVID-19 deplaning procedures, the last rows took an additional 30 minutes to get off the plane. That was a ridiculous one hour after touch down on a two hour flight.
Back-to-front boarding worked great in 1970s,80s,90s. Carry-on baggage was not a problem then. It would work now if carry-on baggage was reduced. The number and size of baggage that get thru a check point today is hideous.Three free checked standard size bags/charge for each carry-on bag larger than 14″x12″x6″ (under seat). . In the mid 1960s I did have a man carry on a kitchen sink onto a M404.
If ALL Airlines followed Southwest example and did not charge for checked baggage people wouldn’t have to cram everything into carry-ons to take on for free. They simply put most of their stuff in the checked baggage and you have much smaller carry on like maybe a backpack for things like medication etcetera. So most passengers would not need overhead bin space. Airlines created this problem themselves by charging to check your bags. Southwest is the only one who got it right. And now JetBlue actually wants to charge for carry-on bags. They will lose customers over this.
Doug, your airline has better things to worry about. I’m switching to United. ✌️
I flew AA’s (awful) codeshare GOL in Brazil in November and they board 737’s (at least during COVID, a local told me) through both doors. Since I got stuck on the back of the plane, I found myself quite surprised to be walking up and down the back steps of the plane near the restroom in the back rows. It actually seemed pretty smart to me. Everyone in the back half of the plane boarded on that end, and vice versa. That said, anyone worried about “COVID Cooties” had no business being there because all you did was get close to people, touch people, and rub next to people. We also had to ride trams a total of 5 seconds (literally FIVE) around the terminal. That’s all beside the point. Anyone trying to avoid COVID just needs to stay home if that’s a concern. Period. But as for boarding, GOL did that part well. It was the only thing they did well. I won’t fly them again, but that’s a story for another day. For now, I’m glad to be Platinum on AA and will stick with getting on in Group 3, or whenever I want. I don’t know what actually works BEST, but I figure as long as people are not rubbing all over me and I don’t have to smell their B.O. (seriously), I am happy.
Try Qantus for efficiency. Gate opens 20 minutes before departure & closes 10 minutes before departure.
Front half boards via the jet bridge, back half via stairs at the back. Agent on the jet bridge directs passengers to the front or down the stairs to the tarmac.
I was on an A330 flight SYD-MEL. Gate opened 20 minutes before departure; 19 minutes later we were pushing back.
I agree. The problem is lack of enforcement of the carry on rule. I dare say more than 50% of the carry on bags, while they are able to be forced into the overhead bin doesn’t meet the sizing requirements and would not fit in the little sizing thingy near the gate. ONE CARRY ON AND A PERSONAL ITEM. THATS IT. NO EXCEPTION. Remember when a service animal was a dog trained to assist a disabled person? Well the airlines let that get so out of hand that people were bringing even pigs on board. NO. Absolutely not. Love and care for your passengers but they must pay for a pet sitter to watch their animals while they’re away. The same thing is happening with the carryon and the boarding process.
I’ve always said that back to front boarding is the most efficient and fastest .
Enforce the I carry on one personal per passenger at the check in desk. Position a flight attendant at the rear of the cabin at the start of the boarding process. Song your passengers down the jetway in that order(rear to front) and insist that LAZY PASSENGERS carry their bags to their assigned row and place them in the bin above their seat. As the first row at the rear is filled the attendant moves to the 2nd row and so on all the way to the front. Enforce the sizing and the number of carry ons and stop trying to chisel out a few extra dollars from people who are stupid enough to pay for early boarding so they can get on the aircraft an sit down somewhere that they will need to move to allow another passenger to get to his/her seat. Supervised boarding from rear to front works if you plan it. Line up your passengers in that order before you send them down the jetway and see if it doesn’t save time and aggravation.
I’ve done my fair share of flying, while in Peru I saw one of the fastest boarding routines and it kept the high paying people happy by boarding 1st and it was seating from front to back entering though the rear of the airplane. In Europe one of the discount airlines used to do the reverse seating from back of the plane entering from the front.
Free checked bags and charging for carry on has proven to be the way forward, and throw in back to front seating.
2 things:
-As a Euro, i always wondered why Biz Class pax are boarding first on a plane in America. It never made sense to me. Maybe some elite pax enjoy looking at the less privileged board their flight…
-Things really started to get messy when airlines started to charge for luggage while creating huge revenue. Some pax get on-board like if they were traveling with half of their wardrobe messing up any boarding process (looking for space, looking for help to load their stuff into the bins). Airlines are making tons of money with those baggage fees but were never able to deal with the consequences of pax bringing far more things than in the past with them on the plane.
those “studies” assumed every passenger is flying alone and didn’t mention the need to make 1st class feel better by letting them sit first.
why not backup the plane and use rear door to seat from front. families get seated at the same time and others start by window seat
Reply to David about using jetbridges for the rear doors:
United tried this in Denver in the early 2000’s, installing a second jetbridge at 4 of their gates in the belief that this would speed up the boarding process The way it worked was: Regardless of seat assignment, everyone entered through the same boarding door from the gate seating area, then proceeded down the jetbridge to the point where it split into 2 depending on which door you were to board through. At the split, the second jetbridge extended across the top of the aircraft wing to the rear boarding door. Presumably, if the data showed that this did reduce boarding times, UA would install these at most of their gates.
Unfortunately, there came a day when 1 of those rear jetbridges had a mechanical failure and it fell onto the wing of a 757, bending it significantly and probably damaging the leading edge slats, spoilers, flaps and landing gear. My guess is that kind of wing damage is not repairable and the aircraft had to be scrapped (anyone from UA maintenance that can provide more details on this?). Shortly after, UA removed the rear jetbridges and that ended the double-door boarding experiment.
Best video on the subject
https://youtu.be/oAHbLRjF0vo
Back to front is the way Thai VietJet boards. It is faster than front to back and cuts down on passenger interactions. When planes board front to back, passengers must file by those already seated exposing the standing and seated passengers to each other.
The fastest way to board is by boarding from the front and rear simultaneously. This is never done in the U.S. in my experience but is common in Asia, especially when boarding from the tarmac. Qantas used three jet bridges simultaneously to board its A380s.
Many airlines in Asia use two jet bridges — one for first/business and one for economy/premium economy — on widebody aircraft. This is faster and a great convenience for passenger in business and economy and it allows flight attendants to do pre-departure service without having to fight the flow of passengers marching back to coach.
There are better ways to board. Parker and most U.S. airlines (and from these comments, passengers) are stuck in their ways.
I am Gold on United so most often I am in EconomyPlus, and in the front of the plane. With the current back-to-front boarding on United I am in the *last* group to board. I have had bin space, but it’s not guaranteed. If I have a tight connection I don’t want to gate check my carry-on.
What is the point of status and preferred seating if I have to worry about bin space?
People are bringing 1 carry-on and 1 personal item. The gate agents are very strict about this, in my experience. The issue is the person at the back can put their luggage in the front, and I’ve seen it happen.
On international airlines they do have different procedures that often work better, but what I don’t think anyone has mentioned is the larger number of staff and flight attendants in international airlines. And they are supervising the boarding process and watching the bin space.
I am a flight attendant and I believe the major issue is carry-on bags.
Several points to ponder:
What are you looking for in your bag that you are up 5 times during boarding blocking the aisle to find!
Why do you open the one bin that’s closed while the one next to it is completely empty?
Why do you expect someone else to lift your oversized, overweight bag into the bin?
Why do you place your bag in the forward bins while sitting in the back while customers in the front are now forced to find an empty bin in the back?
Why do you think that your seat in row 10 would be in the back of the plane?
And (nothing to do with bags) but aren’t there restrooms in the terminal?
American airlines stink. They won’t do front to back because of the first class. They made me stand on the ramp to board along with all the other coach passegees where the wind comes through in Flagstaff back last feb. Or March while they served the first class passengers alcoholic beverages at freakng 6 in the morning. So this is why they won’t do front to back.
I was on my first Frontier flight last week. They charge $48 for a carry on (with 1 free personal item) but $46 for a checked bag. I thought it was genius. Way fewer people chockerblocking the aisles putting their 50 lb carryons in the overhead – apart from the caste system of preferred passengers this is the biggest issue. Charge more for a carry-on or require carry-ons to be checked at the gate. Also board families/groups with kids under 6 yrs first (or board right after preferred class) and assign family seats in the back rows when possible. This gives parents plenty of time to get settled while everyone else is boarding, easy access to the potty and attendants, and deplaning last. This would have been so helpful for me when I had little ones, and much less stressful trying to please all the other passengers. This also solves another kid issue many passengers have with noise and crying. Also I alway choose to board last no matter where I sit. Who wants to get on a stuffy plane EARLY to sit in a cramped seat, unless you like to stare at the other germy humans as they walk by sniffling and breathing on you (and bumping you with their giant carry on!)?
Airlines run optimization models to determine all aspects of their operations. This includes boarding. What is being optimized is profit, not boarding time. Profit includes premium boarding. Boarding time is merely a constraint. Inefficiency is inherently baked in to sell premium boarding options.