AIRCRAFT BOARDING

Download Seat Plan and Description

PRESS RELEASE

Melbourne, Australia

16 February 2009

 The first two passengers take their places on the Flying Carpet. As soon as the other 25 or so join the boarding group the rope barrier will be withdrawn and they can walk directly to their seats. Rules are simple, eg. first to claim their place has priority. Lyn, the lady in red, standing on 11E, also overlaps the seats 12E ahead and 10E behind. Passengers with these seats will have to join the next group a minute or two later, and of course they will have priority.

 Window seat spaces are wider (to encourage them to be filled first), so there is room for passenger 9F, but Lyn’s bag intrudes on the space. However she will probably move her bag to her left to make room. Since both passengers will be sitting next to each other for the whole flight they will undoubtedly act politely and cooperatively. It’s a good way to “break the ice” too.

Rob, on 7B, is looking at the live screen display (not visible), which shows that window seat passenger 7A has already boarded in an earlier group. He is relieved that he won’t be disturbed by this passenger arriving in a later group.

‘FLYING CARPET’ SOLVES AIRCRAFT BOARDING DELAYS

Airlines wanting to eliminate boarding delays should let passengers organise the boarding process, says Melbourne engineer and aircraft boarding analyst Rob Wallace.

Sophisticated studies have recently led to several airlines adopting complicated boarding procedures in a bid to save valuable minutes. But while these methods are very good theoretically, they are often confounded by human behaviour, Wallace says. "Give passengers the means to sort themselves into the right order before entering the plane and they will beat any imposed system hands down" he says.

Other aircraft boarding experts agree: in a paper published in Journal of Air Transport in May 2008, astrophysicist and aircraft boarding analyst Jason Steffen wrote that if a workable method to have passengers line up in an assigned order could be found "….. there is the potential for a substantial savings in time."

For airline passengers, slow boarding means time wasted hunched over in the aisle. Frustration can build to rage, with 30% of passengers saying in a recent survey “ delayed flights….. made their blood boil”.

For airlines the problem is more serious – and costly. Just a few minutes delay can result in an aircraft losing its take-off slot. Passengers miss connecting flights and the aircraft is late for every other flight on its daily schedule.

Cost of delays are huge; a minute per flight equates to millions per year for an average airline (Journal of Air Transport Management 14, 2008, p 203). Industry-wide costs for USA have been estimated at $220,000,000 per year. Faster turn around means that airlines need fewer planes, a huge cost saving. "If you save time with each turn, of say, seven flights, you may be able to schedule an eighth flight", says aviation consultant David Swierenga. 

Little wonder that the airline industry has been trying to improve boarding. Boeing, concerned that in recent years boarding rates have actually slowed by more than 50%, to an average of less than 9 passengers per minute, ran live videotaped experiments to compare different methods. Other studies have run computer simulations, using Lorentzian mathematics which is normally associated with Relativity Theory proving that aircraft boarding is rocket science after all

With allocated seating, as used by most airlines, the most common procedure is to board passengers in small groups, rear to front, which makes much sense. But, surprisingly, the studies showed that this is actually slower than other methods. While it minimises aisle congestion, crowding at the back of the plane means that passengers still have to wait to take their seats, cancelling out the time savings.

Other systems performed better, United Airlines has adopted the WILMA system (Window, Middle, Aisle), claiming it saves 4 to 5 minutes per flight. Not everybody agrees, however: airline consultant Michael J. Boyd, has described WILMA as "the product of a deranged MBA...These initiatives sound good, until it becomes clear that you are boarding humans, and not cattle."

A surprise result was how well random boarding worked: groups of people are actually quite good at organising themselves, something the no-frills airlines like RyanAir and JetBlue have known all along. The downside is the "cattle-crush" with no seat allocation where people jostle to get on board first, and the congestion that occurs when those first aboard claim the front seats and hold-up passengers following.

One of the most thorough investigations was undertaken by Menkes van den Briel, Arizona State University, on behalf of America West (now US Airways). He devised computer simulations validated by field tests at LA International Airport, filming actual passengers. The Reverse Pyramid system (an adaptation of WILMA, with a rear seat bias) was found to be the best compromise, and this has now been adopted by US Airways.

The studies all showed that the fastest way is for passengers to board in small groups in a logical order, widely dispersed. However, that requires strict ordering by staff – which often doesn't work. Rigid enforcement can split up families and others who want to board together, and it ignores personal preferences. “Some people like to be first aboard, while others prefer to wait until the last possible moment," says Wallace. Inevitable late-comers can also undermine highly regimented boarding systems, he points out.

According to Wallace, the key to a successful system is to allow each passenger to board when it suits them, but in a logical order according to their allocated seats, well spread out on the plane. To this end he has devised a simple marshalling mat or “Flying Carpet” with a numbered pattern which enables passengers to arrange themselves in small groups in logical order before they board the plane.

"The mat facilitates co-operative behaviour and results in much faster boarding, hassle-free," he says. “No passenger has to wait or squeeze past any other. It's flexible too: early birds, latecomers, families and partners can stay together and choose their own moment to board."

Menkes van den Briel observed that passengers tend to self-organize and "do a good job staying out of each other's way". He agrees that the mat system could "help speed up the boarding process by pre-ordering the passengers". Other aircraft boarding experts using computer simulations have confirmed that the key to efficient boarding is to get passengers into the right order first. The “Flying Carpet” does just that in a practical, down-to-earth, inexpensive way. 

Patent application has been lodged by Wallace, who is seeking expressions of interest, particularly from airlines, in relation to commercialisation and/or intellectual property acquisition.

Rob Wallace is a self-employed professional engineer experienced in the design and development of a diverse range of products, processes, machinery, and bridges. "My default setting is to solve problems; spending lots of time waiting in airline departure lounges gave me an ideal opportunity to study the problem and devise a better solution", says Wallace.

For further information and media inquiries contact Rob Wallace: + 61 3 9481 6600, rj_wallace@bigpond.com.

Mail:
Rob Wallace Pty Ltd
39 Charles Street
Northcote Vic
Australia 3070

Phone:
+61 (0)3 9481 6600
Fax::
+61 (03) 9481 6633

e-mail:
rj_wallace@bigpond.com
 

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