Travel

Easyjet trialling new way of boarding the plane that could make it much faster


If the trial works, queues could get shorter (Picture: Peter Charlesworth/LightRocket/Getty Images)

Getting on a plane always takes much longer than you expect.

Cramming that amount of people into a small space means you need to queue just to get through the gate, then to get through the doors of the plane and then still wait behind someone while they organise their belongings as they stand in the narrow aisle.

Easyjet and Gatwick airport have teamed up to trial a new method to try to make boarding much quicker.

Instead of boarding passengers all at once, separating them into just front and back, they’re trying to board them depending on whether they are in the window, middle or aisle seats.

Staff are trying a range of sequences to test which is the fastest and most relaxing.

Patterns include seating people from the back row to the front, window seats first, followed by middle and aisle seats.

Anyone who has booked priority boarding and people who require special assistance will still board first but the idea is to reduce the time it takes for the remaining passengers to get on board.

Initial results show that they could reduce boarding times by up to 10%.

If a particular method is successful, they may use it for more flights in future.

Abhi Chacko, Head of Enabling Technologies and Digital Innovation at Gatwick Airport, said: ‘We want to explore whether boarding by seat number will avoid queues in the gate room and when boarding the aircraft.

‘Early indications are that this new technique has the potential to reduce the overall boarding time.

‘By communicating to passengers better and boarding passengers by seat number, we also expect to make the whole boarding experience more relaxing and, potentially, prevent large numbers of passenger rushing forward at any stage.’

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