
(Photo: Robert Couse-Baker/Flickr)
By Nick Stockton
I was at the airport last week, and all I wanted to do was sit down, strap in, and lift off. Of course I couldn’t, because there were a bunch of people standing in my way. As the line crept along, I scanned ahead for malingerers, but everyone seemed sufficiently ready to board. I couldn’t help but wonder, is there a more efficient way for airlines to get our butts into our seats, and into the air?
Millions of other people probably have pondered this question. At least one wrote a computer program to find the answer. Jason Steffen is an astrophysicist at Northwestern University, and several years ago he modeled different airline boarding methods to see what made them so slow. He also figured out how airlines could get us on board much faster.
Most airlines board back-to-front, an approach that makes sense, at first glance. But Steffen argues boarding back-to-front is actually one of the worst ways to board a plane. The problem, as he sees it, is this method creates traffic jams as people stuff their stuff into the overhead bins above their seats. Even if the line were perfectly ordered, only one or two people at a time would be able hoist their bags into the bins. Meanwhile, those who share their row wait behind them, blocking the overhead bins for several rows.
In his model, Steffen
Article source: https://www.yahoo.com/travel/long-boarding-times-for-airplanes-101860704422.html


