Southwest to entertain faster boarding options

swamt

Veteran
Oct 23, 2010
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We have done this twice before. Is the third time a charm? They are using a different city this time around. But I am sure the same results will be obtained. Not sure if it is even worth the time and money to look into this again. Going from 25 mins to 42 mins is not all that bad considering our fleet and number of seats keep increasing with every new airplane we get. Maybe we could get that number closer to 32 mins but really what would that accomplished? Here we go again...

Southwest Airlines studies how to get passengers on and off planes faster
 
Simple solution...You know those wooden chutes that they use to load cattle onto trains? Have one for forward boarding door, one for overwing emergency exit and one for aft door at the tail. Assign a boarding chute to each passenger based upon their probable seat. Any passenger who attempts to use a different chute should be drug out to the ramp in full view of other passengers and beaten senseless before being dragged back into the terminal. Shouldn't take more than 1 or 2 examples to get passengers in compliance with boarding policy. You're welcome. (No need to thank me. I'll just put it on your next bill.)

As a side note: exactly what is management shooting for? A boarding time totally unaffected by passengers? Ya got 2 chances of achieving that...Fat and Slim!:rolleyes:
 
Too funny jim.
To be honest, I am not sure what they are trying to achieve. It's plain and simple we will never get back to the 25 min turns (jim, remember the 15 min turns too?) The more seats we add the longer the boarding and deplaning takes. Even if they were to get to 32 they will not achieve that on every a/c and pretty sure the average will still be in the 40's as you always run into something that takes a little longer. It's just fact when dealing with the general public.
 
Here's an article claiming our turn times as well as on times are improving. I may have to eat crow on this one. Seems they are only doing it in Cal. and of course it would be different if it were system wide and totally dependant upon weather, so Cal is a false indication how it would be across the entire system. But it does appear to be working in good weather stations so far...