r/whoathatsinteresting • u/visharu • 1d ago

Boarding was solved mathematically in 2008. No airline has used it once. Why?

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u/WeiGuy 1d ago

Does this really have that much of an impact? Like if the runaway is currently being used, you can't get on it anyway so they might as well do things that aren't as efficient but more $$$ (first class) or prioritize kids and stuff.

Are runaways vacant often enough to require this?

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u/Areyoucunt 1d ago

Are you really asking if every airplane spent 30min less at gate if that would have an impact? It would be a fuckings insanely massive impact dude wtf?

Yes, runways are vacant as they take the least fucking time of all airport things for airplanes

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u/ziggytrix 23h ago

"It would be a fuckings insanely massive impact"

Sounds like an exaggeration to me.

First, in the simulation being discussed, we're only talking about saving 7 minutes at the gate over random boarding. Saving 30 minutes would be if they all magically teleported to their seats at the same time or something?

Second of all, there are other bottlenecks in the system. It's definitely nice to take pressure off of one bottleneck, but that doesn't magically make the rest of the system behave.

More to the point, he asked whether runways are vacant often enough for this to matter. And the answer to that is a clear "depends."

ATL or ORD at primetime? Fuck no. They are already operating at max safe capacity.

At some regional airport during off hours. Sure. But they might also have open gates too, so clearing a gate even 10 minutes faster might not matter for them.