Originally Posted by
GunsOfNavarone
The real way to board a aircraft with PAX (with carry ons)should be just like loading a military bus with carry ons, back always gets loaded first. If we really want to load properly, no other formula works nearly as well.
Do you have assigned seats on those military busses, or is it just convention that everyone goes as far back as there are free seats and then sits down by the window if there is a double-seat available, otherwise aisle?
Purely from an "algorithmic" standpoint that would seem like the fastest way indeed, but in reality you will have people gum up the aisles because they were allowed to board early (kids, elites, elderly, military, FAM, ...).
Seems like Southwest is doing fine with a fairly random process. The passengers are lined up in a well-defined order at the gate, but once they get on the place they can pick any seat. They seem to get pretty quick turn-around times. Might help, though, that they have a somewhat lower load factor than their competitors last I checked, so gate-checking etc. may not be as often a problem delaying departure.