5 ms·

The more obvious solution is to also use the rear door in addition to the front. Airlines could then charge a premium for those seats as well. No big coordina

The more obvious solution is to also use the rear door in addition to the front. Airlines could then charge a premium for those seats as well. No big coordination effort is needed, but it would require some new jetways or some terminal reconfiguration. Other countries do this frequently with no major problems.

manuelabeledo 3y ago
> The more obvious solution is to also use the rear door in addition to the front. Now you have to play with the airport itself. Most wouldn't have enough bridges to lend two per gate.
piva00 3y ago
Isn't that common in the US? In Europe it's quite usual to have the front door on the jetway for the first half of seats, and a staircase for boarding the last half through the rear door. Thought it was normal procedure, it varies a bit per country and airport here but is common enough, I'd say more than 50% of my flights are configured that way.
- manuelabeledo 3y ago
  > In Europe it's quite usual to have the front door on the jetway for the first half of seats, and a staircase for boarding the last half through the rear door. This is definitely not usual. Admittedly, I haven't been to all airports across the US or Europe, but I have been to quite a few, and have yet to see people boarding from the front and back. Closest perhaps was a double bridge used on an Emirates A380.
  - piva00 3y ago
    I just got a flight Stockholm-Prague a week ago, we boarded from both doors. In May I went Stockholm-Zürich, boarded from both doors, then Zürich-Lisbon, same. Last time I flew to Berlin with EasyJet it also boarded from both doors, now that I'm listing it I can only remember a flight from Oslo-Stockholm with Norwegian where the boarding was done only through the front door. Most of the flights I've taken the past 2 years have boarded from both entrances, I feel it's quite usual.
    - manuelabeledo 3y ago
      I haven't been to any of those airports, except for Lisbon. Didn't see any front and back boarding in there. Neither in BCN, MAD, LHR, LGW, IST, or AMS. I have boarded and de-boarded from the back (but not from the front) in a handful of smaller Spanish airports, though. In the US, I would say that it is not usual at all, or I have been to the wrong airports (IAD, DFW, AUS, IAH, SFO, LAX, JFK, LGA, CLT, ORD). I haven't seen this either in Asia. Perhaps this is highly airport dependent? Still, I would think that this is far from common.
    - ajmurmann 3y ago
      But did the front use the jetway and the back stairs? I've seen stairs on both, but have never seen this mix at any airport anywhere.
      - piva00 3y ago
        Yes, the front used the jetway and the jetway has a staircase to access the tarmac, people walk from there to the back of the plane and up the stairs. I'm very surprised that so many people are telling me this is uncommon, I've been through this setup countless times.
        ajmurmann 3y ago
        Interesting! At what airports have you seen this?
  - BrandoElFollito 3y ago
    I think that all flights in Europe I've taken with low cost airlines had both front and back entries (and exits). My memory good back to maybe 10 years and 4-10 flights a year. I used to fly much, much more but I do not remember that far in the past.
- cameldrv 3y ago
  It's pretty uncommon in the U.S. to board a plane from stairs on the tarmac. There's almost always a gate. I haven't seen the "gate for the front, stairs for the back" loading style in Europe, but I've seen two sets of stairs pretty often. If the goal is to save passenger time and inconvenience, having to take a bus out to a hard stand is definitely not worth the payoff of being able to load from both ends. Loading and unloading from both ends is a lot faster though. United actually had a double ended gate that they were trying out years ago in Denver, which is the best of both worlds and saves a ton of time loading and unloading. It's this really long cantilever thing over the wing to reach the rear entrance. Unfortunately something broke on it one time and the jet bridge fell onto the wing, damaging the airplane, and they gave up on it.
  - aeternum 3y ago
    You shouldn't need a bus because the plane is at the gate. Stairs might be an issue for some but anyone that does not want to go down then back up stairs can wait and go out the front through the jetway. As others have pointed out, this method works great in many other countries.
    - TylerE 3y ago
      The tarmac at an airport is dangerous, noisy place. You don't want people wandering off.
      - aeternum 3y ago
        Right but there are ways to handle this like collapsible barriers that would be quick to put in place. If people prefer to go through the jetway they always can and simply stay seated. This is proven out already in other countries, the ones that want to leave through the jetway stay seated and still get out faster because even if they are near the back most people around them leave through the rear so they make it out the forward jetway much quicker.
- toast0 3y ago
  Jetways for boarding and deboarding is most common in the US. A near requirement because of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities, and a jetway is deemed reasonable for people who can't do stairs. Some airports will revert to passenger stairways when there's more planes to put passengers on, and the weather permits. Airports that often do that, may also sometimes use passenger stairways to accelerate deboarding, but passengers aren't very good at doing that; and when overhead bin storage is tight, you may have placed your items in a bin too far forward to retrieve it while passenger motion is towards aft stairs. I can't recall seeing boarding from the front and aft simultaneously. Very very occasionally, I've seen or heard of airports set up to attach multiple jetbridges to a single aircraft, but that's going to be pretty complex geometry because distance between the front door and the aft door on different planes varies widely.

manuelabeledo 3y ago

> The more obvious solution is to also use the rear door in addition to the front. Now you have to play with the airport itself. Most wouldn't have enough bridges to lend two per gate.

piva00 3y ago

Isn't that common in the US? In Europe it's quite usual to have the front door on the jetway for the first half of seats, and a staircase for boarding the last half through the rear door. Thought it was normal procedure, it varies a bit per country and airport here but is common enough, I'd say more than 50% of my flights are configured that way.

manuelabeledo 3y ago
> In Europe it's quite usual to have the front door on the jetway for the first half of seats, and a staircase for boarding the last half through the rear door. This is definitely not usual. Admittedly, I haven't been to all airports across the US or Europe, but I have been to quite a few, and have yet to see people boarding from the front and back. Closest perhaps was a double bridge used on an Emirates A380.
- piva00 3y ago
  I just got a flight Stockholm-Prague a week ago, we boarded from both doors. In May I went Stockholm-Zürich, boarded from both doors, then Zürich-Lisbon, same. Last time I flew to Berlin with EasyJet it also boarded from both doors, now that I'm listing it I can only remember a flight from Oslo-Stockholm with Norwegian where the boarding was done only through the front door. Most of the flights I've taken the past 2 years have boarded from both entrances, I feel it's quite usual.
  - manuelabeledo 3y ago
    I haven't been to any of those airports, except for Lisbon. Didn't see any front and back boarding in there. Neither in BCN, MAD, LHR, LGW, IST, or AMS. I have boarded and de-boarded from the back (but not from the front) in a handful of smaller Spanish airports, though. In the US, I would say that it is not usual at all, or I have been to the wrong airports (IAD, DFW, AUS, IAH, SFO, LAX, JFK, LGA, CLT, ORD). I haven't seen this either in Asia. Perhaps this is highly airport dependent? Still, I would think that this is far from common.
  - ajmurmann 3y ago
    But did the front use the jetway and the back stairs? I've seen stairs on both, but have never seen this mix at any airport anywhere.
    - piva00 3y ago
      Yes, the front used the jetway and the jetway has a staircase to access the tarmac, people walk from there to the back of the plane and up the stairs. I'm very surprised that so many people are telling me this is uncommon, I've been through this setup countless times.
      - ajmurmann 3y ago
        Interesting! At what airports have you seen this?
- BrandoElFollito 3y ago
  I think that all flights in Europe I've taken with low cost airlines had both front and back entries (and exits). My memory good back to maybe 10 years and 4-10 flights a year. I used to fly much, much more but I do not remember that far in the past.
cameldrv 3y ago
It's pretty uncommon in the U.S. to board a plane from stairs on the tarmac. There's almost always a gate. I haven't seen the "gate for the front, stairs for the back" loading style in Europe, but I've seen two sets of stairs pretty often. If the goal is to save passenger time and inconvenience, having to take a bus out to a hard stand is definitely not worth the payoff of being able to load from both ends. Loading and unloading from both ends is a lot faster though. United actually had a double ended gate that they were trying out years ago in Denver, which is the best of both worlds and saves a ton of time loading and unloading. It's this really long cantilever thing over the wing to reach the rear entrance. Unfortunately something broke on it one time and the jet bridge fell onto the wing, damaging the airplane, and they gave up on it.
- aeternum 3y ago
  You shouldn't need a bus because the plane is at the gate. Stairs might be an issue for some but anyone that does not want to go down then back up stairs can wait and go out the front through the jetway. As others have pointed out, this method works great in many other countries.
  - TylerE 3y ago
    The tarmac at an airport is dangerous, noisy place. You don't want people wandering off.
    - aeternum 3y ago
      Right but there are ways to handle this like collapsible barriers that would be quick to put in place. If people prefer to go through the jetway they always can and simply stay seated. This is proven out already in other countries, the ones that want to leave through the jetway stay seated and still get out faster because even if they are near the back most people around them leave through the rear so they make it out the forward jetway much quicker.
toast0 3y ago
Jetways for boarding and deboarding is most common in the US. A near requirement because of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities, and a jetway is deemed reasonable for people who can't do stairs. Some airports will revert to passenger stairways when there's more planes to put passengers on, and the weather permits. Airports that often do that, may also sometimes use passenger stairways to accelerate deboarding, but passengers aren't very good at doing that; and when overhead bin storage is tight, you may have placed your items in a bin too far forward to retrieve it while passenger motion is towards aft stairs. I can't recall seeing boarding from the front and aft simultaneously. Very very occasionally, I've seen or heard of airports set up to attach multiple jetbridges to a single aircraft, but that's going to be pretty complex geometry because distance between the front door and the aft door on different planes varies widely.