Stop blocking the aisle: How to board an aircraft

While it would be faster for all the luggage to go in the hold, airlines now charge for that too. Photo / 123RF

OPINION:

United Airlines is trying to ease the jam of passengers but priority boarding makes it worse.

Unlike some readers, I am fated to fly commercial, largely at the back of the aircraft. So I am used to the rise in tension when the crew announces the start of boarding. A line will already have formed of passengers vying to get on the aircraft quickly: let the baggage games begin!

First, there is the queue in the jet bridge passage, or the squeeze on to a bus that takes us to the aircraft. Then there is a push along the aisle, past flyers stuffing their bags into overhead bins, to find the right row and gesture to the unfortunate soul in the middle seat to clear the way. Settled at last by the window, I watch the remaining tussles unfold in peace.

United Airlines sounded hopeful as it unveiled the new way it will board its aircraft from yesterday, in an effort to reduce delays. Instead of filling up the economy section by row, it will give greater priority to people in the window seats, followed by middle ones and finally those on the aisles. It hopes to cut average boarding times by stopping passengers from getting in each other’s way.

This is known by the acronym Wilma (window, middle, aisle) and versions of it are already employed by other airlines including Lufthansa. Fine minds have been applied to the problem of how to squeeze a crowd into a small tube as rapidly as possible, and Wilma is one answer. There is also the “reverse pyramid” and the Steffen boarding method, named after the American astrophysicist who invented it.

But curb your enthusiasm, fellow passengers. The two minutes that United thinks it will save with Wilma would merely get it back to its performance in 2019. The reality is not only that boarding times have steadily lengthened for half a century but that airlines have adopted policies that worsen them. Follow the money and it leads to the guy blocking the aisle by row 22.

The problem, apart from making a lot of people walk along a narrow aisle to rows of seats that are crammed in too tightly to pass easily, is luggage. Were it not for the fact that passengers must stand in aisles to stow their cabin bags, things could proceed faster. One study found that it takes 60 per cent longer to board if every person carries on two bags, rather than none.

This logjam could theoretically be eased by filling aircraft according to a formula devised by Jason Steffen, a University of Nevada professor whose website notes that he has worked on “gravitation, particle astrophysics, dark matter, dark energy, and the boarding of [aircraft] passengers”.

The Steffen method (also known as Steffen Perfect) involves sending passengers on board in small groups seated two rows apart. That enables the most bags to be stowed overhead simultaneously before they sit down, followed by the next tiny platoon. It could work if everyone obeyed a set of complex instructions with military precision but I, for one, rarely do.

On top of the problems of people ignoring their designated slots or rushing late to the gate there is an additional one: priority boarding. It would be logistically helpful were ticketing a perfect democracy and all seats randomly assigned, so everyone could be called on board on strict scientific principles. But that is far from reality on most airlines.

Even United is only adopting a modified Wilma: its fortunate window seat economy passengers (and their families) will be in group three. They will follow not only the first and business class folk, but platinum, gold and silver card holders, along with Chase Bank and “specified international” card holders, and “paid Premier Access” boarders. You get the general idea.

This is not to denigrate Wilma. It beats boarding passengers in blocks of rows from the rear of the aircraft, which seems rational but Steffen found was the worst method after front-to-rear boarding. Connoisseurs say that Wilma can be further refined with a reverse pyramid, which involves filling economy seats from the windows inward, starting from the back.

But the best-laid plans still fall foul of “speedy boarding”, as easyJet optimistically calls its own version of priority access. When you sell the right to occupy an aisle seat and the chance to fill the bin above it with bags before others arrive, you throw a spanner in the works. Passengers will soon be walking up and down the aisle, searching for space and becoming obstacles.

While it would be faster for all the luggage to go in the hold, airlines now charge for that too. They are “pulled in two directions” by the operational wish to board faster and the financial incentive to reward their most loyal passengers, says John Milne, a professor at Clarkson University. In a low-margin industry that depends on bag and boarding fees, profit generally wins.

One can blame airlines, or fault their passengers for falling for the “cheap seats, but costly extras” pricing strategy. Either way, the prospects of United or its rivals making boarding much quicker and less painful will be quite limited as long as the business model stays in place. Until then, line up by the gate, listen carefully for the announcements and prepare for trouble.

Written by: John Gapper

© Financial Times