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There have been similar simulations for boarding airplanes. I wish I had never heard about them because now I get annoyed almost every time I fly. As with de-b
by ajmurmann 3y ago
There have been similar simulations for boarding airplanes. I wish I had never heard about them because now I get annoyed almost every time I fly.
As with de-boarding most time is wasted/spent by people standing in the aisle and waiting for someone who is putting their luggage in. The optimal solution has as many passengers loading their luggage in the overhead compartment in parallel as possible. The ideal way to do this would be that we first have passengers with window seats board with one person for each row. We should only use every other row to ensure people can maneuver. So we'd first board seats NA, N-2A, N-4A, etc. down to row 1 with N being the last row. Then NF, N-2F, N-4F etc. And then N-1A, N-3A and so on. Then we work our way through the middle seats and then aisle seats.
The current approach which commonly boards people starting from the front or back FORCES congestion and minimizes probability of two people reaching their seat at the same time and being able to put up their luggage in parallel.
Even if the approach I describe is broken because groups board together, it becomes at worst a random boarding order which is still much more efficient than the current nonsense.
The reason we cannot board more efficiently is because it's unintuitive, people don't like it and behave like wild animals in groups.
- londons_explore 3y ago> Even if the approach I describe is broken because groups board together, it becomes at worst a random boarding order which is still much more efficient than the current nonsense. I think it can quickly become worse than random. Imagine you have the perfect sequence for max parallelism, but right in the middle is one 6 person family group who are going to take 10 minutes to get seated while they arrange toys and stuff for each child, blocking the aisle the whole time. With the perfect sequence, this halts all boarding for those 10 mins, since people need to pass the blockage for the scheme to work. Whereas with random boarding, there will actually be many people who manage to get seated during those 10 mins, because there will be a bunch of people who, by chance, are seated between the door and the blockage and can get to their seats.
- ajmurmann 3y agoUnless the method is reactive, that family would always lead to the entire aisle being filled within seconds with waiting passengers who need to pass them unless the family is very far back in the plane.
- PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago> right in the middle is one 6 person family group who are going to take 10 minutes to get seated while they arrange toys and stuff for each child such a group is slower, certainly. they do not take 10 minutes.
- nradov 3y agoNo thanks. As someone who prefers aisle seats I don't want to get stuck boarding last to find that the overhead bins are already full.
- zimzam 3y agoMost flights I've taken in the last 5+ years use group boarding, which roughly approximates filling outside in (not front to back). It only roughly approximates though because the first few groups are usually not outside-in (eg. first class, premium/rewards customers, veterans, families with small children).
- tomberek 3y agoI never understood the concept of boarding from the front. I would never want to be the first on a plane; regardless of status. And this means that every single person passing them will bump, cough, shuffle, past those that boarded first. I guess it's just that people would feel bad going *last*? Psychology is weird - but powerful.
- radicality 3y agoAt least for me, the main benefit of boarding early is still having carry-on space. Last thing I wanna do is to have to check any luggage and then wait forever to retrieve it later.
- londons_explore 3y agoOn european airlines, luggage rarely overflows the overhead bins because you have to pay to use the overhead bins (often nearly the same as the cost of your seat on short cheap flights). The only storage you can use for free is the space under the seat. That really changes the dynamics.
- dustincoates 3y agoI always board as soon as my group is called. It ensures that I have space next to me for my overhead luggage, and I can start settling in, sometimes going to sleep. Plus, I'm already uncomfortable at the airport, what's a little more discomfort on the plane?