Flying on America’s busiest travel day? May The Force be with you!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Jason Steffens of Fermilab wondered:
What’s the fastest way to board a plane?
He found: LEAST efficient, boarding seats starting front row to back. SECOND worst? That old airline chestnut! Back to front!
For 18 months, Steffen pondered, combining statistics with “intuition.” His Eureka lightbulb? Have just 10 people board at a time, but to seats in every other row. Aha! Because luggage loading takes two aisles.
Steffen’s scheme makes boarding up to TEN times faster!
Even more intriguing, almost as fast as his ten-person,every-other-row plan? Random boarding.
And with your last minute booking, you scored. . . Boarding Group 11 to the nth power? Well, good luck with that, and “Buh-bye.”
Reference: Steffen, J. H., & Hotchkiss, J. (2012). Experimental test of airplane boarding methods. Journal of Air Transport Management, 18(1), 64–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2011.10.003