The secrets of a quick embarkation

[Rwy in Sight]

Are there any secrets on speeding the embarkation of passengers? Lets assume you have assigned numbers and the boarding is not done in rows.

Which is the technique that works and which are the mistakes made?

I am not looking to point finger just any ideas how I might help next time I fly?

Rwy in Sight

[capt.cynical]

Well, a couple of cattle dogs and a stock whip may help :E:uhoh:

[nivsy]

How about telling fellow crew to stop gossiping and standing in the aisle - and here is a novel suggestion - assist pax.....nah that must be against health and safety god forbid.:}

[pinkus]

I boarded an A330 in 17 minutes once as we were massively late on a turnaround.

We put crew checking the boarding cards OUTside on the bridgeto tell pax to go left our right before they got to the door. So effectively had 2 at a time going through the door. Suppose that trick wouldn't work on any small planes.

Also told crew in cabin to be proactive and politely hustle people into their seats!!

[Vld1977]

Also helps if ground staff (I am one of them) keeps an eye on excessive hand-luggage. having a printout of the hand baggage allowance (the one passengers never read in their "terms and conditions of travel") helps when the passengers disagree. Then again, passengers not trying to bring 4 cases plus duty free on board and abiding by the rules of transportation would be the best option. :}

[lovelondon]

In addition to cattle dogs and stock whips a battery operated cattle prod may help 'push em up ' so to speak .

[BAAlltheway]

During some trials i was involved with some time ago, it proved speedier than normal, in a basic form, when operating a 2 aisle aircraft, to board ABC and HJK together, then centre block.

It could be broken down further by doing in sections working back from the rear. My recollection is that rows of 10-15 at a time was optimal, but depends on load factor. Full flight, smaller sections.

[Matt101]

Ban hand luggage - after 911 you could board a 747 in the blink of an eye! It was beautiful to watch and most pax commented on it to.

One appreciates this is not really an option for reasons of convenience but still.....

How about telling fellow crew to stop gossiping and standing in the aisle - and here is a novel suggestion - assist pax.....nah that must be against health and safety god forbid

Well I'll ignore the tone and be honest. Cabin Crew at most airlines are specifically trained not to assist pax loading baggage into the hat rack. Understandable given all the gumph some bring on weighs a ton! Additionally crew are required to be in the aisles (though preferably not blocking them) for boarding on some aircraft. I assume in your lifetime you have had a bad experience or two but how about not tarring the entire community with the same brush and just attempting to be constructive?

[Gibon2]

SLF here - I've posted recently about this in the SLF forum, where I was griping about the strangely inept performance of SWISS cabin crew in getting everyone on board and seated. In contrast, I've witnessed some absolute marvels, such as SQ crew getting a packed 777-200 fully boarded in Jakarta in just under 15 minutes.

Having watched this carefully for some time, I would say the key factors are:

1. Active involvement from the cabin crew. If you're allowed to help stow hand luggage, that makes a big difference. But so does active, cheerful chivvying, guidance and encouragement. (The SWISS crews I was complaining about just stand around, and sometimes actively get in the way. At the other end of the scale, EZY crews work like slaves to get everyone seated, rearrange things in the overhead bins to make space, etc etc.)

2. Anticipating, identifying and quickly responding to the problems that cause bottlenecks. This is where the SQ crew really shone - they'd instantly and magically appear at the side of anyone blocking the aisle, and sort out whatever the problem was. Sometimes it's just a matter of tactfully asking the pax to stand in front of the seat while he sorts out his reading matter, or fiddles with his mobile phone. This is obviously easier to do in a twin-aisle, as you have more chance of reaching the problem area quickly.

Thanks for asking the question. Slow embarkation is something that drives me nuts, and often seems to delay the departure of flights that would otherwise be on time. I have no idea why some airlines tolerate it - it must cost them a fortune.

[Golden Ticket]

One thing I try to do is give them guidance on where their seat is, it saves them reading every row sign as they go down. 29F, over to the other aisle, it's on your right half way down. 13A, window seat on this aisle. If they don't know what a window is I offload them.;)

[JWP1938]

I agree with Gibon2. Last 5 years I have flown almost exclusively EZY and they are the greatest at getting you seated. Plenty of other things about them I don't like (free-for-all boarding for one) but they do the job, staff are great and prices are cheap. Long haul is different of course.

[Two-Tone-Blue]

2. Anticipating, identifying and quickly responding to the problems that cause bottlenecks. This is where the SQ crew really shone - they'd instantly and magically appear at the side of anyone blocking the aisle, and sort out whatever the problem was. Sometimes it's just a matter of tactfully asking the pax to stand in front of the seat while he sorts out his reading matter, or fiddles with his mobile phone. This is obviously easier to do in a twin-aisle, as you have more chance of reaching the problem area quickly.


From experience that seems to be the biggest problem. A complete lack of spatial awareness, and total disregard for everyone else. I'm not sure that CC can address that easily without the use of a megaphone in a single aisle aircraft!

SLF cannot be trusted to self-load ;)

[doishquattroserche]

make the announcement"last passenger in their seat pays the fuel bill" that should do the trick:ok:

[ottergirl]

Turn up the heating in the terminal! Boarding is always quicker in the summer or a warm climate as no-one has to wriggle out of a coat!

Free seating helps too, always provokes an unseemly stampede to get the best seat/ seats together etc. But its every man for himself; I've seen people trampled before!

I'm loving the cattle prod though - where can I get one?

[Basil]

A complete lack of spatial awareness, and total disregard for everyone else.
Good point. Another problem is when airline staff attempt to board pax from rear to front there will always be one or two who do not understand that "Passengers in seat rows 20 to 30." does not include row 15 :ugh:

[ozangel]

Witnessed a beauty the week before last. Bad weather had delayed the last Virgin Blue flight to sydney. As we were waiting in the departure lounge, Jetstar announce their flight to sydney will be cancelled due to curfew.

The virgin ground staff make a PA explaining that if people take too long to board, the flight may be cancelled due to the curfew.

The cabin crew re-iterated the message in a friendly way during boarding, and after take off the captain came on the pa and thanked the cabin crew and the passengers for the 'team' effort of boarding so quickly.

From the time the beacon switched off to the time the safety demo finished as we were taxying out for take off - a total of 21 minutes had elapsed on a full 737-800.

We landed 4 minutes before curfew kicked in.

[Peter47]

I've often wondered what happened to WILMA - window, middle then aisle seats, which I saw used a few years back.

I've noticed that Delta assign passengers to one of around seven groups which board in order. The top one is for premium passengers but the remainder are presumably in sequence to stop passengers tripping over each other. Does anyone have a view as to whether it helps?

One problem is that people often arrive late at a gate particularly if transferring.

I try to board early if I am sitting at the back of a plane but if the queue to board is very long I give up and stay seated until it shortens. You can try and prevent those sitting at the front of the plane boarding too soon, but you can't do the reverse.

[swerve]

Purely from an observant passenger point of view, and fully understanding this would not be possible on short haul ops - my solution is to board pax earlier.
How many times are we sat in a departure lounge for ages looking at the plane waiting to board with 10 mins to go before scheduled departure time. then the usual anouncements and the scrum begins.
I know the do-gooders here will go on about preparing the cabin etc, but allow more time and let passengers drift on as they arrive at the gate. I have experienced this with a far eastern airline and IT WORKS. I know the purists will go on about passengers getting in the way of cabin staff etc but we should not loose sight of what we are trying to achieve.
Long Haul aircraft are often at the gate with at least a couple of hours to go before departure, so rather than que pax in a gate allow them to drift onto the aircraft as they arrive - works on trains, we don't have to be coralled in a gate to get on them!
Should cause a stir amongst the die hards - but trying to think out of the box here

[Matt101]

I know the purists will go on about passengers getting in the way of cabin staff etc but we should not loose sight of what we are trying to achieve.

From my point of view, as ex Cabin Crew, we always boarded as soon as security checks were completed. It's not about you getting in the way as we did this but about the fact that the aircraft, by law, cannot be boarded until these checks are completed.

Often downroute despite the time the aircraft spends on stand, it is spending much of this time being cleaned and catered. This is hard to do if you have 300 people sitting in the seats, they don't even let the crew on until they've finished!

so rather than que pax in a gate allow them to drift onto the aircraft as they arrive - works on trains, we don't have to be coralled in a gate to get on them!

If the aircraft only spent two minutes at the gate to board and disembark all the passengers (leaving everyone else behind), all the ground staff were given whistles and a surly attitude and there weren't security implcations no doubt we could shove you all on quickly to. Hell, if we could get dispensation to get underway while you're still looking to find a place for your bag and somewhere to sit whilst the passenger behind you is shouting "move down!" we really could get home quicker. Apples with apples please.

[The SSK]

During my BOAC days at Prestwick I once saw a full VC10 boarded in about 3 minutes.

It wasn't one of ours, though. Maybe the rearward-facing seats helped to speed things up.

[bigjames]

it seems that the discipline of following the boarding row numbers has gone out the window. the number of times i have seen everyone rush toward the gate when the groundstaff announces the preboarding is mindboggling. even worse, the "out of order" pax are processed anyway. i think a (figurative) slap on the wrist and a trip to the back of the queue for anyone trying to board out of order would help epople focus.

the spatial awareness comments are also extremely valid. even among regular travellers. but sometimes the actions of non frequent travellers are the most frustrating...at all points of the process. i remember tyler brule, columnist in the ft, did a fantastic tongue in cheek article suggesting that infrequent travellers should be forced to wear yellow or orange vests (like construction workers do) to identify them as clueless so they could receive extra help. :D classic!

[Hobo]

Most time is spent in stowing excess hand baggage. The sooner pax are stopped bringing on excess the better. Senior CC member should tell ground staff and Captain that they will stand by the door and reject all excess, that ground staff have let through, on safety grounds.

After a few lengthy delays management will get the message and in the long term, all will benefit.

[Dont Hang Up]

For short haul, hand luggage stowage is always the biggest issue, so -

1. Single item of hand luggage - absolutley no exceptions - not even for duty free.

2. Forbid airlines from charging for hold luggage.

DHU (SLF)

[TheTiresome1]

Perhaps regular flyers have a better sense of what's involved in boarding?

Wife to window seat = safe and comfortable [I would love a window seat one day!].
Husband opens overhead before standing in seat footwell.
Wife 'passes parcel'
Husband does the same.
Sit down, strap in, shut up.

Is that so difficult? Obviously it is.

[Leezyjet]

the number of times i have seen everyone rush toward the gate when the groundstaff announces the preboarding is mindboggling. even worse, the "out of order" pax are processed anyway.

Because as you noticed, it is a big scrum of people and it is just quicker and easier to process "out of order" pax, as it then causes even more congestion trying to turn them back against all the other half wits that cannot simply sit and wait for their row to be called. :ugh: I don't understand the mentality when you have allocated seats. You have a seat, you know what it is, you are at the gate, the plane isn't going to leave without you, so wait your turn !!. :ugh:

When I worked with Lufty, they were trialling a zonal boarding procedure. Windows were in Zone A, Middle seats in Zone B and Aisles were in Zone C. The theory being that everyone in windows would go on first, followed by those in middle seats and those on the aisle would board last. They claimed to be able to board a full 747 in 15 minutes if everyone followed it correctly (we only had 737's, A320's and CRJ's at our station though). Not sure whether they kept it going though.

:hmm:

[Rwy in Sight]

So the amount of cabin baggage and the willingness of pax to board by row can make all the diffence?

The point Leezyjet makes is important if boarding. handling agent staff makes a fuss to enforce either the delay would be larger.

So what can be done?

Rwy in Sight

[bunkrest]

One of my top bug bears was the passenger who decides to stand in the aisle slowly stowing their luggage, folding their coat, faffing with their numerous duty free bags while seemingly oblivious to the scrum of passengers in the aisle behind them. It's obviously tricky when you have children with you etc but just a little awareness of other pax trying to get to their seats would be a good thing.
:)

[fc101]

Ok, this might be just me... 2 adults + 2 small children (done then when they were babies too!).

Plan your seating beforehand: are we 1 adult + 2 children or 1 adult + 1 child. Are we sitting across from each other or in two different rows. Either way doesn't matter but good to know our relative positions.

Minimal hand baggage, big stuff goes in hold. Children put in seats immediately and told not to move (Adults in aisle seats). Bags away, toy/book each for the kids. Seat belts on. Done.

Funny but we're all ready while most business pax are still farting around with their giant suitcases...

I mean, it is not that hard to sit down in a seat is it? Fortunately I'm usually locked away behind the cockpit door and miss the crap our cc have to take...maybe I shouldn't mention the cattle prods to them....

fc101

[Capetonian]

When I worked with Lufty, they were trialling a zonal boarding procedure. Windows were in Zone A, Middle seats in Zone B and Aisles were in Zone C.

Reading through this thread I was thinking about the above and then ... there it was. I haven't flown LH for a couple of years but I think they dropped it. I wonder why as it did seem to work and especially as our German friends love order and method it seemed like a good and feasible idea.

I cannot understand why it takes people 5 minutes to sit down nce they've found their seat. But then I also can't understand why everyone in front of me takes 5 minutes to check in and I'm done in 30 seconds.

[TheTiresome1]

I think it has been said several times over these 2 pages, one way or another.

Passengers are frequently/usually completely ...
unaware, selfish, disorganised, stupid, overloaded with bags/DF ... etc etc.

Oh, and incapable of working out that seat rows number from the front! ;)

And in a single-aisle aircraft, there's bu66er-all the CC can do about it.

[Hipennine]

Coupla of years ago, Barcelona. EZY to NCL, 8 women from smoggyland (Teesside) have paid for Speedy Boarding - at gate with god knows how many cabin bags/duty free bags etc. Remote stand, so bus. Arrival at remote stand - front steps only. 8 smoggies prove capabilty of being in top rugby scrum by getting up steps first. 2 have lost boarding cards so immediate hold up (would they stand to one side - no way !). Party then proceeds less than 1/8 way down cabin, but wanting seats on both sides.
Frantic pa from flight deck that slot about to be lost.
Smoggies decide that they all collectively want to move forward 2 rows. Much heaving of various cabin bags out of overhead to alternative positions. Hardly anybody else has yet got into a seat - 2 busloads of pax standing outside in baking heat. Polite but firm request from yours truly to excuse me please leads to mouthful of expletives and discussion amongst group as to "what's his problem ?". Finally I push them out of the way (you can get away with that as a pax), and wave of frustrated pax follow. Just made t/o slot.
If the gate had stopped them boarding the bus with the excess bags in the first place, it would have been less disruptive, and probably taken less time.

[AirborneSoon]

Single aisle aircraft boarding handy hints....

1. Pack all your little bits and pieces that you'll want during the flight in a bag that goes under your seat. If it's in your overnight luggage then put it in your hand\manbag before you board. No-one can move past you when you are occupying the only aisle on the aircraft while you repack your belongings. Yes even if you breathe in, lean over a seat or pretend you are not really standing in the aisle. :hmm:

If you do need to get something out of your stowed luggage do so after takeoff. Chances are it's nothing you'll need for the few minutes it takes to get airborne.

2. Check your luggage in. Learn to carry less when you travel, it makes life so much easier for you. Do you really want to be dragging a heavy bag around the airport then fighting for locker space onboard? The test of whether a bag should be onboard is the test unit, not whether or not you can personally carry it or if it fits in the overhead locker. There are carry-on limits for a reason, one of them is available space the other one is safety. I'm sure you wouldn't want to be hit in the head with someone's oversized bag.

3. If there is no space in the lockers above your seat put it somewhere else. Even if that somewhere else is over another seat. No point in bringing it all the way down the aisle to where there is no locker space then going against the flow of traffic to try and take it back up the aircraft to an available spot. I promise no-one is interested in your bag and you can collect it again on your way out.

4. If you have a window seat get on first. If you have an aisle seat get on last.

5. Do not plan on using the toilet onboard before take off. Use the one in the terminal instead. People using the loo's holds up boarding and preparing the cabin and in some instances isn't allowed for safety reasons. The ones in the terminal are also nicer, more spacious and more convenient.

6. If you need someone to move so you can get into your seat say "excuse me", it lets the other person know that you need them to do something. Just standing there so they can read your mind isn't the most effective way to go about it.

[NG_Kaptain]

A real slow down is when a pax boards a three class aircraft through L1 with seat number 29F and look up at 1A then 2A etc. hoping by some magic that their assigned seat is in one of the premium cabins :).

[AMF]

1) Get rid of duty-free shopping at airports. If your country sucks so hard you need to shop at the airport to find bargains, then go home and vote in some politicians who will lower your taxes.

2) CC should get over the fact that people need to carry on hand luggage. If airlines didn't lose such a high percentage of checked baggage, or didn't charge the price of an extra ticket for a few pounds of extra weight, people would be more willing to check it instead. There's a very good reason people are willing to roll or tote their hand luggage all over a large terminal...the poor service at the baggage handling end of things.

3) Understand that not everyone is a frequent traveler and sometimes even if they are, they must be re-directed when they pull their overhead bin tricks. As the aircraft fills up, the boarding gets slower, and then stalls when people can't find anywhere to stow baggage up there even if they carry-on only 1 item. Many times the bins are filled with smaller 2nd items (computer bags, purses, duty-free items, folded up jackets, etc) that could and should be stowed under the seat in front of their own by from people who board first, who have already stowed a 1st item overhead. I've been at airlines where the CC know there will be problems with a full load so they make PAs regarding stowing 2nd items under the seat to allow space.

(Frequent travelers know when they're being space-hogs, however, so it's fair game to crush their duty free shopping/computer bag/suit jacket if they've done this and you need some room, all in the name of speeding up the boarding)

[JWP1938]

Trouble is, we have often been told to take our handbags/jackets etc. from under the seat in front and find room in the overhead bins. :ugh:

[cjags]

My biggest hate on single aisle aircraft where airlines don't allocate seats is that pax fill seats from the front, rather than making their way down the cabin.

I'm always very polite when asking people to move down the cabin to choose their seats but quite often I get rolled eyes or a rude response. Said pax are also usually the 1st to complain if we depart late. I will always take extra care of pax who assist me with boarding & know the drill.

Helping people stow bags keeps the flow going too, even if it results in a bit of a sweaty boarding... but I could do with the exercise ;)

[ian16th]

Maybe the rearward-facing seats helped to speed things up....and maybe the SLF was all disiplined & understood what was happening :ok:

[11K-AVML]

From start to finish, what's quicker, the loading or the unloading?

[On the beach]

The last few times I've flown with both Virgin and Emirates they have opened the gate early so that when you get to the gate it is open and everyone can board as they arrive at the gate. It avoided the unseemly rush that normally occurs when the FIDS indicate boarding and you get to the gate only to wait around for another 20 minutes. Air Canada also check your ticket when loading by seat row and turn those back that try to board out of sequence. The lady who does this is frequently an elderly harridan who brooks no argument, but it works.

On the beach

[rusty_monkey]

Still loading paxs onto VC10s one last week full 127 pax 14mins. (seats are still backwards!) As for the other charters 757s Tri Stars A330s we go for a women and kinder and the sick and lame first and allow a 5 min gap until rest of pax move and only allow 20 at a time up the steps. Strictly enforce company policy on hand luggage and if the pax give you verbal shut them off the flight straight away! rest of paxs get the idea fairly quickly. normally alowing 20 -25 mins to load a 200seat fit aircraft, normally manage it in considerably less. this works for free seating as well as allocated but I usher the groups out in setting order normally get them on much faster than free seating. Also control check in staff so all families allocated seating in same area so brats are localised ( normally at the rear to allow other pax on and off faster.

[DIA74]

A few years back we tried the "trickle boarding" concept on B747 long haul. The cabin was opened earlier. SLF were allowed aboard on arrival at the gate. This almost eliminated queuing and made the "boarding experience" far more pleasant for pax than the usual pushing and shoving. Also helped gate staff who had more time to deal with queries and help individual SLF. It worked better than boarding by seat row and got a great response from the SLF. With a twin aisle, and crew arriving at a/c on time, we did not find this system caused any problems with crew prep. Sadly, a change in senior management brought an end to this experiment. Great shame, because it really did make long haul boarding so much more pleasant for everyone and got everyone off in a good frame of mind. I acknowledge may not be so easy to try with single aisle.

[theredbarron]

As humble SLF who tries his very best to get himself seated as quickly as possible my real pet hate is fellow SLF who reach their row, then stand in the isle removing items from their briefcase before placing the latter in the overhead bin, then take their jacket off, fold it neatly and place it in the bin. Like to put them in the bin I would.

[ZarfBeam]

As SLF, I apreciate a quick boarding. I don't like queueing and proceeding like a turtle to my seat.
In the end it's about us SLF who are boarding, and who decide how fast and smooth this happens. It's not rocket science, but just common sense. Some tips to improve your (and other people's) boarding experience:

1) try to seperate stuff which you're going keep with you from the rest which is to be stowed in overhad-bins.
I can take off my jacket even before I go through the gate (actually no need to, I usually wear a light comfortable jacket which is goog enough to fight the A/C and has enough pockets to carry my camera, mobiles, paper tissues, peppermints, mp3-player...).
Newspaper/book and a bottle of water I can carry in my hand, I just need to throw my backpack in the overhead bin or under the seat (even better) - done.
In simple terms, think ahead about the stuff you like to access during the flight and put it in the pockets of your clothes, carry it in your hands while boarding, or at least make it easily accessible if it needs to be packed in a cabin-bag/backpack.

2) consider where you are seated
- I usually have a window seat, so I make sure I'm going to be within the 1st quarter of the queue who is going to pass the gate. If I arrive late, I don't take a seat but stay/linger near the gate.

- In case my seat is at the isle, I just enjoy my comfortable seat at the gate until almost all of the crowd has been processed. No need to hurry :-)

Both habits helped me to make my boarding experience as smooth as possible. That's all I do. In case more people try to improve their boarding-expierence (maybe using better/different procedures), this will lower embarkation time boarding at all - and make the cabin crew smile even more ;-)

[TurningFinals]

If they look like they're going to be slow - stick em in the hold! :ok:

[gadgetman]

- Prioritize pre-boarding duties, minimize the time the galley ops spend hiding in the galleys.

- Keep crew hovering near the front of their respective cabins and being as interactive as possible with pax during boarding, keepign the flow going, maximizing space in hatracks, moving pax out of the aisle space when they stand there holding up traffic as they dig in their carry ons for their iPods.

- When a group is seated across the middle seats, don't pedantically divide them up between the two aisles, send them all down one and let them fight it out who sits where.

- When pax express horror and dismay at being asked for their boarding card as they board the aircraft, don't start spouting on about 'security regulations' and 'official requirements' etc... Give them the option of going of the back of the queue so you can explain it after all the other pax have shown their boarding cards, or simply tell them you're just making sure they get on the right aircraft. Any further explanation invites argument and stalls the whole process.

- Talk with the ground staff as much as possible. Work out how many are missing, when you can start pre-deps, when you can start reseating as early as possible.

- When pax have immediate queries as they board (reseating, baggage, medication etc...) get them out of the doorway and aisles ASAP. Have a crew member not on door duty deal with them out of the way.

- More crew in the cabin, less in the galley. The more you talk to pax before takeoff, the easier time you have in flight.

[Rush2112]

It's all of the above: better organisation at the holding gate, trickle boarding where possible or feasible, restrict carry on baggage, and SLF need to switch their brains on.

If only I had a quid for every time it's commented upon, or I see it for myself, this inability with grasping the concept numerical sequence for seating. If you get on at the front of the plane and your seat is 62F, what makes you think it's near the front??

As I get near the plane, I have already extracted my book, iPod, headphones and boarding card, dump them in the seat, bag in locker, sweep stuff off seat into pocket and sit down. Not hard. If LH, once we are up, up and away, get bag back, take out amenities and more comfortable kit, go the loo and change. Put the bag back and enjoy the flight. Equally, not hard.

People standing in the aisles faffing around, blocking every else's progress should ideally be shot and their carcases thrown onto the tarmac as a warning to others sat in their holding lounges.

[TurningFinals]

People standing in the aisles faffing around, blocking every else's progress should ideally be shot and their carcases thrown onto the tarmac as a warning to others sat in their holding lounges.

I like it!!

[irishmanc]

Travelling as PAX between MAN & DUB with Aer Lingus (I always book a window seat in advance) what the crews do is they tell PAX in front of Row 14 to use Front Steps & PAX behind Row 14 to use Back Steps for boarding at the gate - I once got an aisle (assigned) seat...never again, because people who had been assigned window seats were stepping over me and it was horrible on a full flight...it makes more sense to allow window seat PAX to board first and doors as above - the new terminals at DUB have hardly any airbridges and only the evening flights from DUB have them at the older gates - as for arriving at MAN its like a building site with that silly little overcrowded bus, which on evening arrivals there is only one for a full flight, 2 if you are lucky