Improving airplane boarding time

A review, a field study and an experiment with a new way of hand luggage stowing

Journal Article (2018)
Author(s)

Jessica Coppens (Student TU Delft)

Sagar Dangal (Student TU Delft)

Mirte Vendel (Student TU Delft)

Shabila Anjani (TU Delft - Human Factors)

Stefan Akkerman (Student TU Delft)

S. Hiemstra-van Mastrigt (TU Delft - Human Factors)

P. Vink (TU Delft - Human Factors)

Research Group
Human Factors
Copyright
© 2018 Jessica Coppens, Sagar Dangal, M.E. Vendel, S. Anjani, Stefan Akkerman, S. Hiemstra-van Mastrigt, P. Vink
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.15394/ijaaa.2018.1200
More Info
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Publication Year
2018
Language
English
Copyright
© 2018 Jessica Coppens, Sagar Dangal, M.E. Vendel, S. Anjani, Stefan Akkerman, S. Hiemstra-van Mastrigt, P. Vink
Research Group
Human Factors
Issue number
2
Volume number
5
Pages (from-to)
1-19
Reuse Rights

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Abstract

The airplane (de)boarding process is not organized optimally. The goal of this paper is to search for improvement possibilities. In this paper literature is reviewed, boarding characteristics are studied in a field study and a pilot study with a new way of hand luggage stowing is performed. Computer simulations indicate that there are more efficient boarding methods than those currently in use, like the reverse pyramid method which starts window seat columns in the back and ends with aisle seat columns in the front. The literature also shows that hand luggage stowing in the overhead lockers can block other passengers increasing the boarding time. Also, the field observations and the pilot test indicate that hand luggage stowing could block the aisle and is one of the main elements in boarding that influences passenger experience and boarding time. Training and preparing the boarding process could potentially reduce the boarding time by 3-4 minutes, but further research is needed to prove this.