pfreet

I seem to remember many flights in an out of John Wayne airport in the late 80s where we deplaned from the front and rear, but I think the stairs ion the back were built into the airplane. Am I remembering correctly? I think it was Southwest.

bmr12

Yup, tried in DEN, looks like 2006.

FT thread.

Here’s a picture courtesy of cranky flier.

And ended fall of 2007 after damaging a 757 wing.

WineCountryUA

Pre-merger forums remain on FT, pmUA

DEN dual bridge jetway is here
United giving up on dual bridges at DEN
dual ramp no longer used (TED)

DesertNomad

I've seen this at smaller airports in Turkey and I think in Sana'a (Yemen).

trooper

A little off topic...but I REALLY enjoyed deplaning at JNB by stairs onto the tarmac.... one forgets how BIG an A340 is until you are standing on the GROUND next to it!

nrr

I've connected in LHR to ZRH, where pax were bussed to a remote area to board via stairs. I'm sure, besides ZRH, they do this for other connections.

asphaltman

Rear de-planing was frequently done in SAN and LAS in the early 2000’s, and was super efficient. Ever looked at all the wide stairs all over at LAS? That’s why. 9/11 pretty much axed that though.

lrdpenn

At LGA (at least as of 2019), AA was still deplaning most "shuttle" E190 flights with both front jetbrige and rear stairs. I wish this was widespread but do US airports typically have stairs at every gate to get from the tarmac to the terminal?

phkc070408

It's funny you mention this as it happend to me on an NH flight CAN-NRT. It was a 763 and it was downpouring in Japan when we arrived. When we all (the passengers) realized we were being bussed to the terminal, we cringed at having to climb down the stairs. Thankfully they had covered stairs (I believe two sets), but using two sets of covered stairs took more than twice as long in the rain as a single bridge would have taken.

So add in covered stairs for when it rains to the costs.

I remeber as a kid boarding and disembarking through the rear stairs of PE planes at the old North Terminal in EWR. For those who don't remember the 727s, they had rear stairs built into the plane and came down under the center of the tail and the rear engine. The stairs had to be lowered even when they weren't being used, becasue the center wheels were too far forward and if the front of the plane was empty but the rear was full, the plane would tip if the stairs weren't lowered.

notquiteaff

I could board/deplane from the back fairly regularly when I fly AS (Horizon) on Q400 aircraft, but my preferred seat is 1B.

flyvinci

In my flying days, rear deboarding was a safety issue as there was a risk of tail tipping if it wasn't done in a timely/controlled manner. I had one occurence where pax were all going to the aft galley because they thought they could deboard the same way they came in... aircraft (737-800) started to angle backwards

findark

Every domestic flight I've boarded in Australia used both the jetbridge (if available) and rear stairs. Pax behind the wing would walk downstairs onto the apron and board via stairs. Mostly 737s operated by QF or VA at SYD/MEL/BNE/etc.

Out of my Element

LGB does this. Long and winding ramp to the front door, stairs down from the back door. No jetbridges there. Not many flights there anymore since B6 pulled out.

Bear96

I seem to remember the old Eastern Airlines shuttles (LGA-BOS/DCA) regularly used the rear stairs on their 727s too way back when.

saxman66

I remember Southwest had a gate at DAL that had a split jetbridge that extended over the left wing to the back door. It was quite the contraption. IIRC, Austin had one too and they were just doing this for AUS flights. I boarded using the back of course. This would have been late 90's or 2000 or so. Definitely didn't last very long.