Astrophysicist: I’ve Found the Optimal Way to Board a Plane
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 03.14.08 | 9:37 AM ET
Jason Steffen, a postdoctoral fellow at Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics, says his method is four-times faster than the typical loading time for most airlines. Here’s what Steffen proposes in a paper for the Journal of Air Transport Management, as synthesized by NPR:
He found that lining up passengers whose seat assignments are two rows apart and boarding them from the back of the plane to the front—then repeating for the other rows—is the most efficient way of getting passengers onto a plane.
Wired believes Steffen’s paper will be popular with airlines. “People get seated sooner, which means planes take off sooner,” Chuck Squatriglia writes. He adds: “[P]lanes only make money when they’re in the air, as they are able to take off and land more flights on a given day.”
How did Steffen devise his method? He used “a Markov Chain Monte Carlo optimization algorithm and a computer simulation.”
Of course.
Related on World Hum:
* Attention Everyone in Groups A, B and C, and Rows 42 Through 1: Get on the Plane! Now!
* Zen and the Art of Strolling Past Bob Dole While Boarding a Plane
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
Gizzly Bear Mom 03.14.08 | 12:40 PM ET
It seems to me if the airlines first instructed those with windowseats to be seated, then center seats, and then aisle seats, it would be most efficient. Airline staffers: if my idea is a good one, present it to your airline as your own and see if you can win a cash award and we travelers can be seated with the least inconvenience possible. Also it makes sense to me that passengers with few hand carried items/no children/no handicapps should board first. Then they can help those with baggage, children and handicaps be seated. It would work somewhat like an express line at the supermarket. I have visual and ability handicaps and overcome them by waiting for all those with “burdens” to be seated, selecting those seats that faciliate my traveling, and by traveling light. I once brought SIX infants under the age of two from Korea to Washington DC. (Don’t try this is you are over age 25!) During the Asian portion of the trip, many passengers helped with the babies. (Its been was my experience that Koreans and Japanese would hold your package if you were standing on the bus, offer their seat to the elderly, etc.) During the U.S. leg of the trip, I don’t remember much help. Darned U.S. individualism!
Michael Yessis 03.14.08 | 1:25 PM ET
United uses the window-middle-aisle, and I’ve found it to be no better than other scrambles.
Apparently there are five major systems of boarding currently in use. The Wired story I linked to above has an interactive graphic that shows them all in practice.
Sandy Scott 03.14.08 | 5:03 PM ET
The back to front boarding method described by Jason Steffen seems simple and efficient; however, was weight distribution factored in to his plan? Is weight distribution even a concern?
Ling 03.15.08 | 12:57 AM ET
Nice touch with the Monte Carlo whatever…Now all that needs to be done is to get people to follow instructions and quit shoving and pushing.