It’s the common tale of woe for many travelers waiting to board a plane. First the airline has to go through a long list of passengers who have priority: First- and business-class passengers, frequent fliers, elite card holders, uniformed members of the military, families with children, those who hold credit cards affiliated with the airlines, passengers who paid for priority seats.
By the time coach travelers are called, the overhead bins seem to be already full.
Airlines have been boarding passengers since the first commercial flight, but as they have added new classes of seating to their cabins and new fees for priority boarding — all in the name of more revenue — they have slowed down the whole process.
Checked-baggage fees have only added to the problem, because travelers now take more roll-ons onboard, blocking the aisles as they try to cram their belongings into any available space.
And that’s not to mention the fact that planes are now fuller.
That is why some airlines have gone back to the drawing board to rein in a lengthening process. As it is, boarding time has doubled over the last decades, according to research by Boeing. It now takes 30 to 40 minutes to board about 140 passengers on a domestic flight, up from around 15 minutes in the 1970s.
“They should have a different line for people with carry-ons like they do at baseball games with bags,” said Brian Proffit, who was flying to Houston from New York with Delta Air Lines. “The boarding process has become worse than the security lanes.”
One airline did figure out a way to sharply cut boarding time. Spirit Airlines found that passengers got to their seats much more rapidly once it started charging $20 to $40 per carry-on bag. Since it’s $2 cheaper to check a bag, more passengers do, and Spirit claims its “stress-free boarding” saves six minutes on average.
Others are reluctant to take such a drastic step for fear of alienating customers.
It should be no surprise that boarding has become one more frustrating step in airline travel. Or, as Mark E. DuPont, the vice president for airport services planning at American Airlines, put it: “Boarding can be like driving behind a slow-moving truck that you can’t overtake.”
Airlines have tried all kinds of elaborate tricks over the years to leave the gate on time. Some board passengers in the back rows first, while others give priority to those with window seats, and some come up with elaborate combinations, including one no longer used, known as the “reverse pyramid.”
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One Response
30 to 40 minutes to board a domestic flight? Granted I don’t fly as much as I recently did (I still fly) but I don’t think I have EVER been on a normal-jet flight where boarding has taken so long!
Let’s face it, it takes time to board a flight. You have 100 plus people having to go single file in a narrow aisle. People do have things to put in the overhead, WE ALL DO. Based on my experiences, I would have thought it takes about 15 minutes (that’s on the high side!) to board a flight.