I will say disembarking from an LY 744 using stairs a couple of years ago was one of the most efficient disembarkations I've seen. It's amazing how quickly 400+ people can get off a plane when you attach five stairways.

Jetway-less airports aside, I did deplane via stairs on a QF NRT-SYD flight in October when no gates were available. While the FAs expressed surprise and said they hadn't had that happen with a 747 before in routine ops, QF seemed to have the resources to easily handle it. (Interesting factoid: Qantas is the largest operator of buses in Australia. Who would have guessed?)

-m