Rapid Airliner Boarding.

[barkingmad]

London Gatwick airport making a valiant effort to reduce turnround times by squirting passengers into their allocated positions aboard using preboarding selection.

As an aviation pundit commented on radio, one is dealing with human beings and they don’t behave as you’d hope or expect.

In the halcyon days of Palmair operating out of Bournemouth the late great Peter Bath who started that operation could board a 110 seater Bae146-300 sitting >50 metres away from the ground-level departure door in 10 minutes. Both front and rear aircraft doors were used and alternate seat rows were filled starting at the fuselage centre.

This required him to personally check boarding cards and politely to hold back anyone out of sequence and it worked.

Apparently Gatwick will try boarding window seats first working towards the aisle but that doesn’t solve the problem of those who spend ages trying to stuff oversized cabin cases in overhead lockers or suddenly deciding they have to extract “essentials” from said baggage thereby blocking the aisles.

During my time in seat 0A & 0B I observed it was always around rows 5-7 where some thoughtless **** would perform this task on a forward door only entry from the jetty and causing the body flow to stop.

A quick PA informing pax to get sorted and seated asap as we had a (non-existent) ATC slot,which if not met would result in a serious delay, usually sorted that problem.

All credit to LGW for the trial but having observed airline krill behaviour over a few years I have my doubts as to the success of the operation.

As for Priority Boarding, which has been a moneyspinner for Locos for years, the broadcast item commented that occasionally PBs were more than half the SLF payload like the wonderful scene from “Come Fly With Me”! How are they going to react watching ‘ordinary’ pax boarding before them to grab the available overhead locker space?

[izod tester]

Perhaps, if the allowed those passengers with no hand baggage to board first and then those with only one small bag, it would encourage people to check in their large baggage to be put in the hold.

[Capetonian]

The underlying problem is the mindless and selfish behaviour of human beings.

[barkingmad]

The underlying problem is the mindless and selfish behaviour of human beings.

+1 ! !

[ian16th]

So if a married couple having gone through hoops to book adjoining seats 44A and 44B, are expected to separate before boarding and meet up on the a/c?

A couple with child having seats 44A, 44B and 44C are expected to split 3 ways?

That will go down like a lead balloon.

[Slasher]

The underlying problem is the mindless and selfish behaviour of human beings.

Don’t forget the IQ of the average passenger immediately drops 50% upon stepping into an airport terminal.

Well those travelling Cattle class anyway.

The selfishness that idiot moronic parents exhibit - namely that everybody on board has to put up with their undisciplined little snot-nosed brats - has me seething. And I speak up too!

[Rwy in Sight]

Cape and ian16th respect for your point. The Palmair boarding worked fine because the pax not yet called did not argue but abandon the line and went back to the lounge seats. In our days everybody has either a compiling reason to board now or hasn't seen the boarding pass or has not correlate the number printed and the number called for embarkation.

It might worth making an announcement to take out of the bags any reading material or gismos pax will need in flight hence eliminating the need to do so on board the aircraft and creating a bottleneck.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Using two entrances, I could get 400 schoolgirls seated in the Speech Day marquee in just under 12 minutes. Furthermore I trained the first years to put out the seating (over a thousand seats, and with gaps so everyone has a clear view of the stage without pillars interfering), under the guidance of three of the previous year's first years. The prefects lead down each year group, but they are only there for show. They are still doing it to schedule 13 years later, with the first and second years still running the whole show and self training from the briefing guide. At all other schools I was at, it is run by senior staff and prefects and takes at least 25 minutes.
Hire 12 years old public schoolgirls as check-in staff. They're sweet. They're organised. They don't take any sh!t.

[barkingmad]

Fox3, a great tribute to your schoolgirl taskforce and well done to them all and the organisation.

One prays that when they reach Uni or tertiary education they will not regress to the snowflake level perceived of todays future leaders!!

Meanwhile back at the departure gate we’re dealing with the species who film themselves with oxygen masks wrongly fitted during a real inflight emergency, who take cabin baggage down the emergency slides, who then turn to face the scene and film it instead of moving away upwind and those who cleverly open a rear door in an intact ditched aircraft (Hudson River).

But it’s good publicity for LGW, the folks who gave us the drone shock horror chaos last Christmas where questions are still being asked if there ever was a drone as reported.

An acquaintance who is a fully licensed responsible drone operator says it was a ruse to ram through rapidly the legislation being considered for drone flying, which won’t stop the wild-eyed hairy-faced fundamentalists from having a go at the widebody on departure.

But this topic is for another thread.

Back to the subject of “Bingo Boarding”, are there any bets as to how successful this move will be and will all airlines all airports adopt it? Not if it means it becomes a cost item to the airlines via higher handling charges and the IT needed for the gate displays.

[Woody]

Don’t forget the IQ of the average passenger immediately drops 50% upon stepping into an airport terminal.

Well those travelling Cattle class anyway.

Then of course there’s the self entitlement of those in premium class

[Ex-Ascot]

So if a married couple having gone through hoops to book adjoining seats 44A and 44B, are expected to separate before boarding and meet up on the a/c?

A couple with child having seats 44A, 44B and 44C are expected to split 3 ways?

That will go down like a lead balloon.

Yes indeed Ian my thoughts exactly when I saw this. The concept is logical and something I considered as a solution years ago. It will not work. Mrs Ex-Ascot and I usually sit A & B. She will not board without me or vice versa. Also what is the point of paying for priority boarding. In cattle class you just get to sit longer cramped up in the tube. First and Business get to board first but then you sit guzzling fizz whilst the unwashed sort themselves out. Biggles a'int going to leave any earlier because you were first on board.

One of the biggest problems is people standing in the aisle trying to shove bags into the locker. We always put ours on the seat and wait until folk have passed. Airlink here have an excellent system. If you wish, you take your hand baggage to the aircraft but it doesn't go into the cabin but to the front of the hold. On arrival it is at the bottom of the steps for you.

On the A300-600R (up to 400 POB) we had one hour to do a turnaround. Impossible.

[llondel]

They did say that family groups would be allowed to board together - given that usually most of them occupy the seats immediately and only one puts the baggage up, there's no more congestion than if it was just that person.

When I'm on my own and organised I tend to put the stuff I know I want on the flight in a small bag (old supermarket plastic bag was ideal for this but not readily available now) in the top of the main carry-on - water, snacks, book, headphones etc. Then, when I get to my seat, I can step aside, haul that out, put it on the seat, briefly interrupt the flow to put the main bag up on the bin and then sit down. It just requires people to think a bit in advance, which is a trait lacking in much of the population.

I prefer the "no bags", followed by "small bags" followed by "large bags" followed by "obscenely large bags" as the boarding order because I traditionally go for an aisle seat for legroom reasons.

[ian16th]

I traditionally go for an aisle seat for legroom reasons.

+1

and getting to the loo!

[Pontius Navigator]

Me, I have a seat reserved, I see absolutely no reason to be first on. I chose my seat to be first OFF.

Brainwise, on one flight we boarded front and rear. At LGW we disembarked at the front. Bloke in front of my forced his way to the rear, almost came to blows with me when I tried to stop him. He succeed and pushed his way to the rear galley where the FA made him stay. Obviously left his brain there when he boarded.

[unifoxos]

I chose my seat to be first OFF.

I never bother. I sit comfortably and get off last. Experience has shown me that I always have to wait for my baggage on the whirligig and the a/c seat is (slightly) more comfortable than standing in the baggage reclaim area.

[llondel]

Different equation if you've only got hand luggage and don't need to wait for the carousel. Even with checked luggage, it was worth piling out quickly when arriving in the US from overseas because otherwise you could end up spending an hour in the queue for passport checks. You knew you'd done well if you got to baggage reclaim before your bags did. Obviously not quite so bad for crew.

[barkingmad]

I suppose it’s too much to hope that a manager type from LGW ivory towers is following threads such as this and can pop up on radar and confirm all potential problems have been aired, discussed and solutions implemented.

Now where did I leave that fairy, last seen near the secateurs out by the Leylandii hedge.......?

[ian16th]

Ones priorities differ depending if one is travelling domesticity or internationally.

On International flights, one needs to be processed by immigration before the carousel. So a speedy exit from the flying m/c will have value.

[Rwy in Sight]

Getting off first if on a jetty it can make the difference on catching a bus for a few seconds or waiting 20 minutes for the next one - particularly late at night.

it becomes a cost item to the airlines via higher handling charges

. I understand handling companies charge for everything they can but why the new system would lead to higher charges?

[barkingmad]

Higher charges as gate staff will be expected to police the boarding and challenge out of sequence chancers. This will attract extra training courses in conflict resolution and diversity appreciation. If this is not done Joe & Mrs Public will cotton on to the lack of supervision and just barge on so ruining LGW’s carefully crafted plan.

New or modified display screens and associated I T to show the current boarding sequence will cost.

The extra scrutiny at the gate may reveal baggage outside the normal cabin spec so extra work required to change it to hold baggage status. And so the list goes on.

Imagine you are a handling company manager and you’re handed this cash cow. Prizes for the most original and/or funny reasons to charge your customer airlines more for implementing this boarding procedure will be awarded!