DL Tests boarding using 2 jetbridges @ CVG
 

https://simpleflying.com/delta-air-l...st-cincinnati/

DL tests boarding using 2 jetbridges at CVG.

In a different age, how UA did it at LAX T7 (or, as they called it, Satellite 7) (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/32509641-post84.html):

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...58ceca2626.jpg

Here's a color version in an ad (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/32518485-post87.html):

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...352f4a2c36.jpg

David

love the throwback! needless to say, I don’t remember WA’s 1962 boarding configuration for the LAX-PDX-SEA trip my parents and sister and I made on a 720B ;) 🛫

I'm curious what the configuration was since they didn't show a picture. Did the plane have to pull up sort of parallel to the terminal to allow the use of 2 gates' jetbridges?

I know at some California locations where you have to go outside to board (LGB, BUR), Southwest boards from the front and rear (with a roll-up ramp at the front, and roll-up stairs in the back). I believe at SJC, pre-covid they had a trial run of boarding from the front and rear - with the front using the jetbridge, and the rear using roll-up stairs (and presumably either walking up stairs to the jetbridge or another set of stairs to the terminal). It'd be interesting to see this tried in more places - even if just for the novelty factor!

No doubt about that! Just like the old days! JetBlue had it before. Before 9/11. Some passengers went outside the gates. They went down the stairs. They went on the ramp. They go up the air stairs. Some airports have it. But not all airports.

A nice idea but most airports just don't have the facilities to accommodate that. The better solution going forward would be to make any aircraft over 150 seats a twin aisle. It takes no time boarding a 767 compared to a large narrowbody. Especially with 40% of business travelers estimated to never return, it's asinine to be running 20+ 320's on ATL-LGA. That was once the domain of the 767 and it worked just fine at around 8x daily.

According to the tweet from the article, they used B5 for the forward half and B3 for the rear. Given the position of the jetways of these gates at CVG, this is probably something that could only be done with this kind of orientation, so they wouldn't just be able to do dual boarding with any two adjacent gates. You can use Google Maps to pull up how they are oriented and picture where the plane would go. The article also shows another tweet with a picture of LH appearing to use dual jetways for an A321.

Then there is also AMS which is probably one of the last airports to still have I think 2 gates with overwing jetways.

DEN tried this for a while when United's TED was a thing - a combo jet bridge that occupied one gate, split a few feet in, and carried a second jet bridge over the wing to the rear door.

That experiment ended the first time the over-the-wing bridge hit a jet wing. Very expensive.

https://www.denverpost.com/2007/10/3...etway-project/

And DEN has several dual jet bridge gates for widebodies like the 777.

Yeah most of the setups with dual jetbridges I've seen are overseas and split at/near the beginning. Typically the front is for business/premium econ and the other goes to the mid cabin or rear door for econ. Works pretty well at AMS for the widebodies.
I think SIN has that set up as well. I thought NRT had dual back when DL used to fly there, but been a while.

Really the worst DL planes for boarding at the front are the 739 and 757-300. And I'm sure will be just as bad and take forever to board when they bring the 737 MAX -10 on board.
The A321 holds a little more pax, but always seems to board better than the 739.

I wonder if this is why they moved Flight 228 to B7. It has left out of B5 for years.

Boarding using fore and aft doors is the only thing I like about bus gates at FRA. One downside is people who enter via the wrong door and then have to travel upstream.

Our family has a favorite old movie clip of our Italian Nonna and her husband leaving JFK for their first ever flight walking outside to board the Alitalia plane. He veers right to the back of the plane and she aims left towards the front door. The Stewardess (as known then) redirects her and the family all laugh how Nonna seems to know where she wants to go.

South African airlines boards front and back. just did some local flights this week. they had everyone on and seated In 15 minutes. they also had a simple boarding process two lines first class/ elites and everyone else. no preboarding etc. first/ elites started at the front of the plane everyone else started a minute later from the back.

Miami had three separate boarding sections for the A380. Not sure how it was parked. Even Google searches were unclear, but it was definitely towards the far end of the terminal, so it could have used the end plus part of the long terminal.
But Euro, ME, and Asia airports appear to have different jet bridges for first and cattle class.

Experienced this today arriving at CVG. I don't remember the gate, but after landing the FAs announced we could deplane from front or back (and that strollers/wheelchairs would all be at the front).

This was on a 737 and they connected jet bridges to both doors. First time I'd had the option to use the rear door that wasn't a bus gate somewhere outside the US.

The A380 can board to the upper deck if the gate(s) supports it. So the 3 door arrangement is the common forked bridge for widebodies you see in international gateways, plus another bridge for the upper deck.

Back when there was a real shuttle out of LGA and it was a B727, it deplaned using the jet bridge and aft stairs

Except that the 767 is weight restricted for take off at LGA.

CVG is actually a really good test bed for this due to the space they have to work with and the limited flights. According to the imbedded tweet I must have missed the tests for three straight flights. :(

A 767 is not an issue at LGA. Since the perimeter is 1500 miles + DEN, a 767 would not have any issue doing ATL.

Historically, Delta flew 767s (-200/300/400) into LGA when they had them in domestic configurations. The 767-300 had 261 seats, 767-400 had 289 seats and they routinely did LGA-ATL with every seat filled.

There are three reasons you won't see 767s from Delta anymore at LGA. One is that LGA is now a hub. When 767s were frequently seen on ATL-LGA up until the mid-2000s, Delta out of LGA was more or less an operation flying the Shuttle to BOS/DCA out of the Marine Terminal, hourly flights to ATL and regular flights to the CVG and DFW hubs and then a lot of Florida, plus a very small handful of regional flights. Nothing like today where you can take DL to basically any mid-size city in the Eastern Time Zone. Before, if those customers wanted to be on Delta, it was take the ATL flight and connect. With nonstops now, you don't need as many flow passengers on LGA-ATL. Second are airplane sizes. Going from a 261 seat domestic configuration to a 226 international configuration tightens it on one side, meanwhile on the other side, 757s back then were 180 seats, not the 199 nowadays (and you've got the 193 seat A321s). When you were doing 2 out of 3 flights on a 757 and then a third on a 767, you basically get the same capacity as 3x 321 in the current configuration. Third is the new LGA design. The old D1 and D3 at LGA could handle 767s back in the day. Under the new design, the largest plane that is designed to fit is a 757. Every inch of the new terminal is accounted for, and there's no way that they were going to plan for an unlikely/un-needed 767 when you can fit 2 RJ spots in there instead.

For a short flight to ATL?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mizzou miles (Post 34641820)

… the 767 is weight restricted for take off at LGA.

---

yes

the *airplane* is weight-restricted at LGA, but it’s not actually applicable or relevant when talking about a flight to ATL

from my long-ago Boeing Flight Test days:

• ”weight-restricted” refers to an operational reduction in the certified maximum takeoff gross weight (TOGW) of the aircraft due to climb performance or (I suspect more likely) load limits on the runway support structures at the northwest corner of the airport
• TOGW for a given flight is aircraft operating empty weight (OEW) plus passengers plus cargo plus fuel plus required reserve fuel
• even with a full passenger load and full cargo bays, the fuel and reserves for LGA-ATL in all likelihood wouldn’t bring the airplane anywhere near the reduced max TOGW

Could be weight restricted because of max landing weight in ATL or runway at LGA.

Boarding view from 737-800.

https://i.postimg.cc/tJ9ctrMt/046-BC...B6-DB668-F.jpg

Boarded a 737-900 from this gate today. The entire boarding procedure took 12 minutes. I hope DL can make this a reality in more stations, though given the space it requires, it seems unlikely.

I wish that Airbus had made the A321 2L door usable for boarding. Those planes take forever to load.

yeah, you’d think none of their engineers had ever flown in F on a 757 :rolleyes:

They have a configuration of the A321 in which 2L can be used for boarding - it’s up to the airline to choose. For example, I’ve boarded an LH A321 from door 2L.

Agreed, just did the same in a few weeks ago in SouthAfrica. It is very fast.

We also boarded an AF flight using a split gate in CDG with one path leading to Business and the other to Main.

Are you sure? LGA used to handle DC-10-40 aircraft which had a far higher weight than a 767. Didn't NW have a special version with an extra center landing gear made so it could be flown into and out of LGA?

the DC-10-30/40 (and all of their sub-variants) have the center main gear, these aren't "special" versions and I doubt it had anything to do with LGA specifically. It had bigger fuel tanks thank the 10-10 and hence needed to support more weight.

Yeah! It takes too long! They don’t have in the back of the aircraft. There are 200 passengers on the plane. It took about 30 minutes for boarding the aircraft. Way too long!

It always amazes me how (US) airlines try the 2 bridge boarding every so often, and then abandon it again. Those double jetway companies must have the same sales guys that convinced the TSA to buy the slow ANALogic EDS machines…. :D

I think the dual jetway idea usually fails, because US airlines just don’t have the extra peeps to run two jetways at arrival and before departure. That and of course the space requirement. Even airports that do have them in the US rarely use them (at least for US carriers).

I lived in Cincinnati in the glory days of the CVG hub (mid-late 1990s). I flew to/from LGA quite often for work and remember lots of flights on domestically-configured 767s between LGA and CVG. It kind of saddens me that widebodies on domestic flights have become extreme rarities for U.S. airlines. I lived in the SFO area for a time, during which my loyalty shifted over to UA, and I remember frequent SFO-ORD flights on 747s.

Two-door boarding is not uncommon at a number of European and Asian airports that park the planes in remote locations and transport passengers between concourse and plane by bus. As others have reported here, Southwest also does it at airports in SoCal. It is so much faster and more efficient; one wonders why it is not a more common procedure.

passengers put a huge value on frequency

Did this for the second time today at B3/5. Really the only difference is you get to sit on the plane an additional 15 minutes prior to pushback. 🤣