What is the fastest method of loading passengers into a plane?

Question

starting from the back first or is there any faster way?

Answer 1

The military way. As you enter the plane door, go take the seat farthest away from the door, and closest to the window (or side of the plane if no windows) fill from that point forward until the plane is full. The slowest way is the way airlines do it, with every passenger having a different seat in a different location. Can you imagine filling a lifeboat that way? Know as first on, last off. And, conversely, last on, first off. See, being last can have an advantage.  

Answer 2

Similar to what Fencemender said, they should let people board from the back to the front. After they announce that they are boarding, the numbers, from the rearest row by row, should appear on the screen. Say after the first person scans their boarding pass, the screen asks for the next seat number.

It will be slow from the start of the system but when passenger become aware of that, it will work like magic.

NB: Don't steal my idea though, I have got it registered.

Answer 3

The fastest method of loading passengers into a aircraft is to line them up so that the window seats are first, lined up rear to front, followed by the center seats, back to front, and then the aisle seats back to front. Strip them of all but 1 carry on bag per person. Tell them that we only have 6 minutes to board the aircraft, or wait for 5 hours, and that you expect their cooperation. Any one that does not want to cooperate, we will accommodate on the next flight.

We used this method on a B-727-222 at Charleston, WV in 1975 to get flight 404 out of town before a thunderstorm front that went from Toronto to New Orleans reached us. The first words the Captain told me were "See that front? If we are not out of here by the  time it gets here, we are not leaving. What are you going to do, Dan?" I told him to get back n the cockpit, as we were leaving in 14 minutes. We dispatched the aircraft 12 minutes after it arrived, with a full load on and off.

We also did this a week later with a flight to Newark, on a B-737, another full load of 108 passengers.  On their next trip in, both Captains wanted to know how we did it.

It is necessary to board the back row first,as the people in the front will block the aisle, and no one can get around them until they sit down. This is why we arranged the people in the boarding area in the same order as their seats, and did the windows first, then the middles, then the aisles.

In  contrast, the slowest method of boarding passengers is to have 84 unaccompanied minors on a single aircraft, B-737 with 108 seats, as every mother sees her duty to escort the child to their seat. Not to the jetway door, or to the aircraft door, but to their seat. The mothers do not pay any attention to any announcement that you make asking them to not go down the jetway. The agent started boarding 40 minutes prior to departure, boarded 84 minors,  20 regular passengers and 4 mothers who did not make it off the aircraft prior to pushback. They got a free ride to Boston, but had to pay for their return to Cleveland.

Sometimes, being a passenger agent can be a real trip.

Regards,

Dan  

Answer 4

say the first 100 get a refund.

Answer 5

Burn 'em all and load the ashes?

Answer 6

the pyramid  

Answer 7

Tell 255 passengers that there are only 254 seats!

Answer 8

Lift the emergancy chutes up high and enter the plane that way?  

Answer 9

Tell them there are free drinks for the first 100 (or so) people in their seats.

;-)

Answer 10

Easy! The announcement goes something like this: "Good afternoon, we will now begin boarding flight 1234 to wherever this plane is going. The plane will leave the gate in exactly 12 minutes, with or without you. I am sorry to say I was suppose to make this announcement 10 minutes ago. Enjoy your flight."

But seriously, the best way any airline could do it is through multiple cabin doors. I know United and Delta, as well as several international carriers have gates with two (4 for the A380) jet bridges to load the cabin from the front and from the rear.  

You can't expect paying passengers to sit the way they do in the military. Look at southwest, they don't have seating assignments and the seating process is really just one major caster%@&!. the window and aisle seats fill up first, and then every person in an aisle seat eventually has to get up and let someone in who needs the middle seat. It works great on planes that aren't very full, or if they has a 2x2 seating configuration it would work well, but its just not efficient. There needs to be assigned seating, using forward and aft doors.

Answer 11

The biggest problem is people loading bags into the over head bins.   If you load from the front,  you have to wait until people finish loading and sit down before you can get past them.  Therefore loading from the rear of the plane would be the most efficient.  If they really wanted to load fast,  they would have the people line up by seat number before they start loading.  That way they would just go down the runway to the plane and those in the rear would go to the rear and those at the front would end up at the front.  This of course is assuming you are loading from one door.  If you have a big plane with ground transporters it would be more efficient to load from the front and rear at the same time.  If you really want to see a fast load and unload you need to see combat troops load into a C130 and then bail out in the air.   LOL..

Answer 12

Watch how they load the people into subway trains in Japan.

Answer 13

tell them a bomb has been found in the waiting departure lounge

Answer 14

Overhead bins open.  Armrests up.  Belts out of the way.  Passengers lined up in proper order.  

Answer 15

Use a jetway not stairs on the tarmac.

Answer 16

Allocated seating, boarding in order, through as many doors as possible.