Originally Posted by
Peter47
I'm not sure if this is the right forum, but here goes.
On a recent trip around the US what struck me was the amount of time it took to load passengers. A full narrow bodied (and US airlines are typically operating at 85% load factors) seemed to take about 30 minutes to board meaning that a turnaround took about 50 minutes.
Can anyone tell me if there are any rules of thumb used and whether turnaround times have been increasing over the years. I seem to remember that Southwest used a 20 minute turnaround for 737s that was certainly without allocated seats - I don't know if they used two entrances like most European locos.
I always thought that it was common to start loading aircraft from the rear although I personally preferred the WILMA approach starting with window seats (but allowing groups to board together) although this seems to have been an experiment that was quickly discontinued. I notice that Delta loads by status so frequent / premium flyers are allowed to board first. This is doubtless to give them priority with the overhead bins but causes congestion. Later boarders have to check their truly enormous wheelies (for free mind you, I paid $25 to check in my not much larger ruck sack which did admittedly contain a couple of 125ml liquid containers). This adds to turnaround time. I know that airlines love the ancilliary revenue but I wonder if given the hassle that it is the way to go. Why not add $10 to fares and allow the first bag for free? Is the current business model really working?
Thirdly, I departed from the rear a 747 at Schiphol (OK the middle it was a Combi). I think that this has been covered before, but would the economics of having two jetties for single aisle aircraft be compelling? This has happened in the past.
Docked Dc8s Stock Photo | Getty Images
There would certainly be a capital cost associated with it but if it were to reduce turn around times by say ten minutes it might be well worth it. Has anyone ever done the calculations? (The locos have certainly worked out that it is worthwhile using the rear entrance.) Many crews are paid according to block rather than duty hours and you would probably need larger ramp crews so there may not be any saving in staff costs but airlines would require smaller fleets. It just seems more efficient.
Any thoughts on any of the above?
I'm not sure that turn times are any shorter in the UK or Europe than they are in the US. That has not been my observation.
Part of it may be that most US airlines are not usually very aggressive in enforcing carryon rules, so many pax ignore them, which does slow things down. It's always remarkable to see cabin crew manage to find space for everything in the bins of aircraft never intended to hold so much cabin baggage. It's also only fair, since the later boarding passengers should have as much right to carry their bag aboard as did the earlier boarding bin hogs. You are correct in noting that domestic US flights typically have very high load factors these days. Most of us have fond memories of many empty seats and easy upgrades even a decade ago. All gone now.
People do carry on more than they should, but this isn't simply to avoid the checked bag fees. Some folks feel that it'll take too long to get their checked bags, although this is rarely the case in our experience and some fear lost bags, although this also happens only very rarely. In fifty years of airline flying, I've never had a bag lost or delayed, although our checked bags have sometimes arrived on earlier flights than we did.
Airlines needing or wanting more utilization out of their aircraft usually don't depend upon quick turns for this. They'll more typically schedule either an early pink eye or a late red eye for their birds. They'll also put their TATL aircraft on shorter out and backs during what would otherwise by downtime between arriving in the US and setting out for Europe again.
In short, I don't think that turn times in the US are comparatively long and I'd doubt that you could speed things up enough to get another flight each day out of each aircraft.