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There's more than one way to fill a plane
Jun. 18--Cash-short airlines scrutinizing the tiniest of details for increased efficiency have found that the familiar old "back-to-front" method of boarding a plane, starting with the rows farthest back, is just plain backward.
"The way we were doing it was probably the slowest way we could possibly do it," said Mark Ahasic, director of operational planning for JetBlue, the discount carrier.
But what should replace it?
America West uses the "reverse pyramid" method; Delta the "rotating zone;" and United the "window-middle-aisle" method. Each claims to shave precious minutes off the time an aircraft sits at the gate.
Jet Blue, which is introducing service to Pittsburgh at the end of the month, conducted trials on more than 100 actual flights as well as on a computer and found the method that was seemingly the most chaotic was the most efficient.
On a 156-seat plane, passengers boarding all at once, after the elderly and those needing special assistance, took 17 minutes to settle into their assigned seats, about a minute faster than any other method Jet Blue tried.
Jet Blue calls the method "random boarding" and switched to it systemwide in April. "It sounds worse than it is," Mr. Ahasic said. "It's all about simplicity. There's diffusion, and people disperse to wherever their row is, wherever their seats are."
Jet Blue said that, in airports that allow it to use both the front and the rear doors, it can board the plane in 13.5 minutes. In late May, Northwest changed from "front to back" boarding to random boarding, although it boards special assistance, first-class and elite-status passengers before the rest of the plane.
