The real reason airlines still board planes front to back – despite it causing huge aisle blockages
THE real reason airlines still board planes from front to back despite it causing huge aisle queues has been revealed.
Passengers have long found boarding one of the most tiresome parts of flying – but an astrophysicist thinks there’s a better way.
Experts from Travel + Leisure helped to explain why the confusing practice remains in place.
They said: “More often than not, airlines use a process called block boarding to load passengers onto a plane.
“In this system, each passenger is assigned a zone, and one zone boards at a time.
“In block boarding, the zones aren’t necessarily separated by rows on the plane; they’re actually designated based on factors like cabin class, frequent flier status, whether or not you hold an airline credit card, and fare class.”
This means that passengers at the front of the aircraft, where first and business-class cabins are usually located, tend to be allowed to board first.
Thanks to this priority system, the plane fills up front to back, resulting in the long queues in the aisle that holidaymakers have become all too used to.
The experts claimed that airlines use this system to encourage passengers to pay more to book higher-class seats to buy their way to priority boarding.
However, an astrophysicist claims that he has come up with a better way.
Dr Jason Steffeen, who works as a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, developed the method which allows people to board the fastest mathematically.
Dubbed the Steffen Method, it involves passengers boarding based on the position of their seat in the row, with those with window seats first, followed by those with middle seats and then aisle seats.
However, they must also board in alternating rows to allow a better gap and reduce waiting times.
Dr Steffen said: “The best way to board passengers is to have them spread out throughout the interior of the cabin so they can all put their luggage away without getting in each other’s way.
“This would mean boarding all of the passengers on even rows, seat A first, then going to the odd rows, then the other seats.
“Over time, the passengers will tend to organize themselves in the fastest order.”
However, he accepted that not many airlines might take on the method thanks to the fact that it doesn’t allow much room for human error.
He added: “Some may adopt some of the principles my method exposes, but I don’t know that any will switch completely.”