3 ms·

One thing the article doesn't mention is how this changes the final time to have all people processed. Wouldn't this result in (for example) flights leaving lat

by lukev 11y ago

One thing the article doesn't mention is how this changes the final time to have all people processed. Wouldn't this result in (for example) flights leaving later, if people were in competition to arrive last?

dominicgs 11y ago
Absolutely, the article presents the problem as trying to minimise the time that an individual wastes in a queue, not the problem of processing all of the people in the shortest time possible. In the airline example, the airline wants passengers to be at the gate before they begin boarding so that they can start looking for missing passengers as early as possible. I think we see this technique most often used by low cost carriers, and this is one of the many ways that they are able to turn aircraft around so quickly.
dalke 11y ago
It does quote "In practice it would be very hard to implement a principle of serving the last in most physical queues where people physically queue up, for example when boarding an airplane. It's simply too difficult to manage for practical reasons." There's a real-world variation. At some airports people at the terminal go into a bus, which then takes them to a plane. This serves to mix and somewhat invert the queue, since the last people on the bus become the first to enter the plane. The question I have is, is there a change in the gate queuing behavior between flights that load directly at the gate, vs. one where people first enter a bus?
- joosters 11y ago
  That might be tricky to measure, especially as it's not obvious whether your gate is going to be bus-loaded or just a walk to the plane.
  - dalke 11y ago
    For some gates it's obvious. When you're on the ground floor, with only roadway outside the door, then there will be an airside transfer bus. It's even more obvious when the neighboring gates also use buses.
    - jsprogrammer 11y ago
      Some buses utilize doors on both sides of the vehicle (or in many locations on the same side). Not all buses are LIFO.

by lukev 11y ago

dominicgs 11y ago

Absolutely, the article presents the problem as trying to minimise the time that an individual wastes in a queue, not the problem of processing all of the people in the shortest time possible. In the airline example, the airline wants passengers to be at the gate before they begin boarding so that they can start looking for missing passengers as early as possible. I think we see this technique most often used by low cost carriers, and this is one of the many ways that they are able to turn aircraft around so quickly.

dalke 11y ago

It does quote "In practice it would be very hard to implement a principle of serving the last in most physical queues where people physically queue up, for example when boarding an airplane. It's simply too difficult to manage for practical reasons." There's a real-world variation. At some airports people at the terminal go into a bus, which then takes them to a plane. This serves to mix and somewhat invert the queue, since the last people on the bus become the first to enter the plane. The question I have is, is there a change in the gate queuing behavior between flights that load directly at the gate, vs. one where people first enter a bus?

joosters 11y ago
That might be tricky to measure, especially as it's not obvious whether your gate is going to be bus-loaded or just a walk to the plane.
- dalke 11y ago
  For some gates it's obvious. When you're on the ground floor, with only roadway outside the door, then there will be an airside transfer bus. It's even more obvious when the neighboring gates also use buses.
  - jsprogrammer 11y ago
    Some buses utilize doors on both sides of the vehicle (or in many locations on the same side). Not all buses are LIFO.