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by sorokod 2830 days ago
> On the other hand, storing hand luggage overhead is one of the most time consuming parts of the boarding process

Depends on how you define "boarding process". My experience is that it is insignificant if the boarding process starts at the point where the boarding gates open and ends when the plane starts taxiing for takeoff.
1 comments
tomp 2830 days ago
Exactly. If airlines wanted to, they could significantly optimize the process... Like ordering the passangers by seat number already in the terminal. Some larger airlines do that, but discount airlines prefer to make money by charging for "priority boarding"... and even that is retarded, they could simply charge more for upfront seats (I don't really see the benefit of boarding early, after all airplanes are likely less comfortable then terminals, but there is a benefit to exiting early).

Btw, as far as I know the reason for the long "everybody boarded but airplane not moving" wait times is that the flight is considered "departed" when they disconnect from the terminal, so they can be "on time" (another meaningless KPI) even if they don't actually take off an hour later.

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throwaway9d0291 2830 days ago
> Like ordering the passangers by seat number already in the terminal.

Mythbusters tested this and it actually performed pretty poorly: https://mythresults.com/airplane-boarding

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TeMPOraL 2830 days ago
> Like ordering the passangers by seat number already in the terminal.

Yes please. The standard boarding process is retarded, and they could cut the time to 1/3 if they pre-sorted people before borading...

> as far as I know the reason for the long "everybody boarded but airplane not moving" wait times

I always assumed the airplane & airport crew is just running through some safety checklists in the time between boarding and taking off.

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