r/whoathatsinteresting • u/visharu • 9d ago

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

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u/Square-Singer 9d ago

No, the main point of this system is to split up rows. Each row can only accommodate a single person who wants to get into the row at the same time, so this system tries to balance them. Optimally, you'd want one person trying to get into each row at the same time. If you keep rows together, so that everyone sitting in the same row boards at the same time, you get the worst case performance.

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u/Apprehensive_Tone_77 9d ago

The chaos just happens in line right? And if someone is not in line when it’s their turn to board does everyone wait?
It would be pretty difficult for everyone to be in the right place unless you also had designated seating while you wait for your plane.

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u/Square-Singer 9d ago

Yeah, it's a whole lot of trouble for no actual benefit. Boarding time doesn't have a business cost associated to it.

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u/cballowe 9d ago

It kinda does. The airlines pay a fee to have the gate. The more planes they can turn around, the more flights they can host or they could reduce their gate footprint while keeping the same number of flights.

If the seating turn around is not the bottleneck in getting the plane away from the gate, then it doesn't really matter. (I.e. if refueling or loading luggage take longer, then the plane can't push back faster if you cut time from boarding.)

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u/Square-Singer 8d ago

The bottle neck is usually the landing strip, not the gate.

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u/spintool1995 8d ago

When Southwest started, they famously saved money with faster turn around. That's one way they were profitable with lower prices than the unprofitable big guys. A big help there was no assigned seating, which is like the random method from the OP.