Improving airplane boarding time: a review, a field study and an experiment with a new way of hand luggage stowing

Abstract

Verbatim from Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons. Not paraphrased, not summarized.

The airplane (de)boarding process is not organized optimally. The goal of this paper is to search for improvement possibilities. In this paper literature is reviewed, boarding characteristics are studied in a field study and a pilot study with a new way of hand luggage stowing is performed. Computer simulations indicate that there are more efficient boarding methods than those currently in use, like the reverse pyramid method which starts window seat columns in the back and ends with aisle seat columns in the front. The literature also shows that hand luggage stowing in the overhead lockers can block other passengers increasing the boarding time. Also, the field observations and the pilot test indicate that hand luggage stowing could block the aisle and is one of the main elements in boarding that influences passenger experience and boarding time. Training and preparing the boarding process could potentially reduce the boarding time by 3-4 minutes, but further research is needed to prove this.

Authors

• Coppens, Jessica Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• Dangal, Sagar Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• Vendel, Mirte Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• Anjani, Shabila Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• Akkerman, Stefan Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• Hiemstra-van Mastrigt, Suzanne Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• Vink, Peter Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Keywords

• boarding time
• boarding experience
• hand luggage
• reverse pyramid
• observations
• Physical Sciences and Mathematics
• Social and Behavioral Sciences