United to halve boarding time

[Paul]

United Airlines will install five state-of-the-art jet bridges at Denver International Airport that allow passengers to board and deplane from both the front and back doors of an aircraft.

The nation's second-largest airline will use the advanced bridges, developed by Ottawa, Ontario- based Dew Engineering and Development Ltd., on Concourse B for flights involving its low-cost arm, Ted.

As part of the plan, United will move all 35 daily Ted flights currently operating on Concourse A to Concourse B by this fall.

If the new "dual" bridges work as planned, United hopes to increase revenue and efficiency by decreasing the amount of time it takes to de-board and re-board aircraft. The carrier estimates it can shave 10 minutes off its "turn time," meaning its planes can fly longer - and make more money - each day.

"It's another opportunity for us to turn the airplane faster," said Sean Donohue, vice president of Ted. "Ultimately, what we get is more productivity out of the airplane. Anything we can do to get more out of that multimillion-dollar asset . . . is a good thing to us."

Rocky Mountain News

 

[Fly]

Wonder why they want to do this seeing that United is going to sell Ted to US Airways. Maybe they changed their minds and decided to keep the ole boy afterall.

 

[UALDC767]

Wonder why they want to do this seeing that United is going to sell Ted to US Airways. Maybe they changed their minds and decided to keep the ole boy afterall.

Please let sleeping Dogs lie..... <_<

Now the question becomes....whats going to happen with the A gates?

Does mainline/TED take back the upper B gates (48 or so and above) from United Express and then Express uses the A gates? I don't see how there are enough gates on B to allow for the TED operation without moving something out.

DC

 

[Fly]

I think the issue is: Why install 5 "state of the art" jetbridges without first trying the dual boarding process first? JetBlue boards this way (the rear is boarded using a drive up jetway). The passengers never complain because they are given the opportunity to wait until the end of boarding if they don't want to use the stairs.

We've given up so much money, why not be cautious with the money we gave back?

 

[jimntx]

Hope you have better luck with catering. At AA, the catering truck has an uncanny ability for showing up right in the middle of boarding.

 

[laura62]

Hope you have better luck with catering. At AA, the catering truck has an uncanny ability for showing up right in the middle of boarding.

Yes, it is a disaster on most a/c when catering shows up in the middle of a boarding process. However, Ted flights are catered for multiple segments so catering only shows up occasionally-not for every leg.

 

[ClueByFour]

Yes, it is a disaster on most a/c when catering shows up in the middle of a boarding process. However, Ted flights are catered for multiple segments so catering only shows up occasionally-not for every leg.

I'd much rather see every widebody at SFO, LAX, IAD, ORD, JFK, etc boarded thru multiple jetbridges before TED 320s out of DEN....

 

[Kev3188]

I think the issue is: Why install 5 "state of the art" jetbridges without first trying the dual boarding process first? JetBlue boards this way (the rear is boarded using a drive up jetway). The passengers never complain because they are given the opportunity to wait until the end of boarding if they don't want to use the stairs.

We've given up so much money, why not be cautious with the money we gave back?

FWIW, the Shuttle flights in PDX used the drive-up stairs for a short while; it seemed like it worked quite well-I'm not sure why they quit using it.

 

[DCT JVL]

Here's what it looks like.

 

[laura62]

I'd much rather see every widebody at SFO, LAX, IAD, ORD, JFK, etc boarded thru multiple jetbridges before TED 320s out of DEN....

I agree. However, I was responding to jimntx's comment about catering dual boarding a/c.

 

[Kev3188]

Cool picture!

 

[coolflyingfool]

I guess that some mainline flight will move over to A. I was wondeing why they don't just put the dual bridges on A instead of moving TED to B. Since LAS and PHX are all TED, will they get dual bridges also? just wondering.........

 

[x15]

The dual boarding bridges are something new and innovative??? Didn't SWA have them for the last couple of years in ALB??

 

[IORFA]

FLY,
Where does Jetblue use this method you talk about? I flew them from JFK-PDX and that wasn't offered to us.

 

[Fly]

FLL and IAD both do it that way on JetBlue.