Why aren't mobile lounges more popular?

[c52]

I've used one once, at Dulles. There was no walking, no steps, escalators, or lifts. Just wait in a proper lounge, walk onto a giant bus sort of thing on the level, notice it drops to ground level, drive across the airfield, get lifted to the height of the a/c doors and board.

Compare with using Gatwick pier 6 - about 10 minutes of walking, several escalators, some claustrophobic corridors, the odd ramp. No fun with even a small amount of luggage, let alone with a couple of toddlers or an old person in tow. Or Heathrow's T5B, T5C - replace some of the walking with waiting for an underground train.

I suppose some people appreciate a brisk walk immediately on getting off a plane, and others are bursting for a toilet, but still I would think the vast majority of passengers would be better served by the mobile lounge than either by traditional buses or piers and airbridges.

[SpringHeeledJack]

As you said, a walk after a flight should be seen as a positive, and I walk a lot every day, BUT the distances involved at the two examples given are too far and convoluted for passengers to embark/disembark.Yes, those unable to walk will be transported by courtesy buggies, but to see those with kids, bags, clothing, forced purchases in the shopping centre after security ;-) etc etc, it's just not practical or efficient. So the idea of the mobile lounges makes sense, so long as the fleet is large enough to cover the passenger flight numbers. Those at short walk gates would be unaffected.

[wiggy]

Or Heathrow's T5B, T5C - replace some of the walking with waiting for an underground train.

Yeah...but.....arrive at T5 on to an off pier stand (I.e. one where you are carried by buses from the aircraft to a drop off point about 100 metres from immigration/main flight connections) and you’ll hear howls of anguish and grumbles from those who would rather walk through the terminal complex than wait on board for something with wheels.....

I suspect this is one of those ‘you can’t please all of the people’ topics..

(there might also be issues with increasing the amount of vehicular traffic around the apron, investment in bespoke kit, etc..)

[chevvron]

Money !!!!!

[obgraham]

Over the years when the mobile lounges were used at Dulles, to me it was just a waste of time and aggravation:
1.Sit in overcrowded departure area
2.Jam into a line to get to the mobile carrier
3.Crowd 200 people into a carrier designed for 100, through a too-tight doorway, then wait on board, and wait some more.
4.Wait while the driver slowly lowers it to the ground
5.Take a long and obtuse drive to the aircraft (indeed, like LHR T3) while standees luggage takes out your eye.
6.Sit at the aircraft while he raises the carrier.
7.Get aboard and fight for your seat as there is no order coming off the carrier.

Just get me to the plane, please. Skip the fancy carrier.

[Peter47]

I think that when Dulles used mobile lounges the published departure time was 15 minutes before the planned push back and the published arrival 15 mins after scheduled chocks on (planes appeared to achieve 10 minute turnarounds). So longer journey times.

Mind you there is a time penalty for coached flights. (I flew KLM Cityhopper back from Schiphol yesterday with coaches at both ends. It was fine at AMS although on another flight a connecting pax arriving more than 15 minutes and a tight transfer passenger missed their flight. She would have made a flight from a gate. At LHR T4 it took me 30 minutes to reach passport control including a long walk, and I was the first off the second coach. Rant over.)

The idea was to run the mobile lounges from a centralised holding area so eliminate long walks to distant gates. I believe that they are still used for arriving pax requiring federal clearance at Dulles. I think that in the 80s Pan Am and Port Authority used mobile lounges for ferrying to planes parked at remote gates, believing them to be more comfortable than buses.

[M-JCS]

As chevron says, it is no doubt to do with money. I recall that the operating costs for the Dulles mobile lounges were astronomical. Never mind the original purchase price of them.

[WHBM]

Buses are straightforward mass-produced models off the production line, whereas mobile lounges have always ended up as custom-built models at 10 times the price for a handful. They have little ongoing support, the manufacturer closes down the next year and spare parts then become impossible to obtain.

[ShyTorque]

I'm scared of heights- you'd never get me up in one of those things!............

;)

[falcon12]

Mobile lounges, built by a French company if I remember properly, were in use at Jeddah. Useful since the airport had a lot of space to ferry pax to the remote stands.
Travelled in them on a few occasions when they were distinctly looking tired on the inside. There was story doing the rounds that a party of Royals were using them when the cabin suddenly collapsed from the fully up position. The guy who was responsible for them was invited to step out of the back of C130 over the Empty Quarter.