Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave

I fully support disembarkation by row numbers. I'm fairly sensitive to the timings in this space and it makes almost no difference overall, and can be faster than keeping uneven sized blocks of passengers in the aisles not moving. It's also more civilised. And for those with tight connections it make it easier if they are either placed before landing towards the top of the cabin or specifically invited to depart the aircraft first. Fewer things get inadvertently left onboard aircraft when there is more structure to the process. And yes it is safer since the ventilation exposure is greater in aisles than in seats.

Use of buses for embarkation and disembarkation is something completely different, and from a public health point of view I strongly feel that numbers should be capped and ventilation improved. Risks assessments have been done in this space and the really problematic area is full buses where not all seats face forward. And this is the sort of bus that HAL uses, with seats forward, sideways and rear facing. I would not go to the extent of blocking out seats, but the sensible thing to do is to cap loading at 50%, 60% of fitted seats, and discourage standing. This will then mean that a couple will typically have a bit of a gap of perhaps 1 metre between the next traveller(s). With improved ventilation this would represent a sensible compromise for a short duration trip. On a A320 shorthaul service with 100 passengers this typically means running 3 buses instead of 2. On a longhaul which isn't fully loaded then we go from perhaps 4 buses to 6 buses. We really need to stop this idea that we fill a bus before dispatching it, and the process should be speeded up to reduce exposure time, not held back until every corner is filled with standing passengers. The additional cost implied by this, with extra buses and drivers, taking a large airport and compared to total costs, is peanuts. And at some point airports will try to use airbridges more efficiently for the right cost-benefit reasons.